April 13 – July 13, 2005
Presentation of the “Sabotage Sculpture”
and SoS Video GROUND 01
at the Exhibition HR GIGER IN PRAGUE NATIONAL TECHNICAL MUZEUM
April 13 – July 13, 2005
“SABOTAGE” sculpture manifesto by HR GIGER
The word “sabotage” comes from the French word “sabot” and means “to trample with wooden shoes.” A sabot is a clog with a leather top. At the beginning of agricultural mechanization French farm workers threw their “sabotes” into harvesting and processing machines (which were taking their jobs), thereby blocking the complicated mechanics of the mowing and threshing machines and rendering them useless. For the sake of their labor, they engaged in “sabotage.”
On August 30, 2003 at 1:00 pm Finnish time, on the island of Harakka just off of Helsinki, SoS (the State of Sabotage) was called into existence before a large audience. ROBERT JELINEK and H.R. GIGER, together with “HUUTAJAT,” the Finnish screaming men’s choir, ceremonially inaugurated the state. Also on this occasion, the “SABOTAGE” sculptural monument, designed by the Swiss artist, “Alien” inventor, and one of the most important representatives of fantastic realism, was unveiled. H.R. Giger’s monument is his first public sculpture outside of Switzerland. The sculpture will remain forevermore on the highest point of Harakka Island and is publicly accessible. The Helsinki City Museum assumes care of the monument in the future. The state declaration took place under the patronage of the following micronations: the PRINCIPALITY OF SEALAND, LADONIA, the NSK STATE, ELGALAND-VARGALAND and the TRANSNATIONAL REPUBLIC. Representatives of the micronations also signed an SoS state charter. To duly commemorate this historic event, the State of Sabotage declares the 30th of August its State holiday, to be celebrated annually.
H.R. Giger, the artistic genius and Oscar winner for the film Alien for film design, and the mastermind behind a biomechanical universe that has haunted us throughout the last four decades, will present in Prague not only a vast selection of his paintings, sculpture and sketches, but also some of his film, music and multimedia projects, aswell the original “Sabotage” boots and drawings of the project. Further the SoS Video will be shown during the exhibition.
On April 13, 2005 the world-famous artist H. R. Giger will personally open his exhibition at newly opened galleries of the National Technical Museum in Prague. This will be one of the largest cross-section of the artist’s life work. Museums and collectors from all over the world have loaned works, many of which have never before been publicly presented, until recently at Museum Halle Saint
Pierre, in Paris, and now in Prague. HR Giger is an exceptional representative of contemporary art, an Oscar recipient for the film design of Alien and the creator of the lifeforms called biomechanoids, he wishes to pay his respects to Prague, a city whose mythical history has provided an endless reserve of inspiration—the writer Franz Kafka, theosophist Gustav Meyrink, writer and painter Alfred Kubin and many other important personalities of art and thinking which inspired his work.
The opening will be accompanied by a concert and a performance of artists inspired by Giger’s work.
Certain film projects with which Giger has been associated will be screened at the National Technical Museum, along with documentaries about the artist’s life and work. An exhibition catalogue will be published in Czech and English.
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