N55 is an artistic group in Denmark who use bicycles as a component of further projects. They do not appear to sell complete bicycles, but do produce plans for their designs. Designs lean heavily on Aluminium extrusion, which requires straight lines and more right-angles than regular bikes. The cycles also act as a platform for further work, like cargo moving, air cleaning, or retail.
Organisation's website is found at https://www.n55.dk/
Their self description is
N55 is a platform for artistic collaboration, operating on a high level in international contemporary art, design and architecture. Since the start in 1996, N55s projects have received widespread acclaim both in professional circles and among a broad public. N55s notion of art is grounded in a perception of art as a part of daily life, with the artist as a generalist who can orient her/himself towards any field of knowledge. N55 is first and foremost concerned with relations between ethics and aesthetics, and thereby politics, and to develop an artistic work with practical as well as metaphorical implications. By reformulating certain features of our daily life and surroundings, it is possible to create meaningful situations and social surplus. Art is not restricted to certain methods, techniques and theories, but must take all possible media into consideration, and by means of a general approach, be concerned with fundamental conditions for existence. The practice of N55 is interdisciplinary, multifaceted and include basic philosophical work on language and art, development of a range of functional sculptures and installations, collaboration and dialogue with researchers, activists, artists and others, and research on social, scientific, artistic and political issues. The work is shown locally and at international art exhibitions and all systems and manuals are available on the Internet and in publications. The work is published/ released under Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 as a form of open source, which others can copy, build upon, etc. respecting to the license. All along N55 have sought an independent position in relation to art markets and maintained a critical and constructivist position. N55 wish to demonstrate that art as a way of living and acting can be of considerable relevance for other areas of society, and raise attention about basic relations between art and politics, aesthetics and ethics. In general the work goes against commercialisation of personal relations, seeks to find ways in which we could organise in smaller concentrations of power, and build societies based on inclusion, not exclusion. With projects like the XYZ CARGO cargo bikes, we are trying to create a model for producing things fair and locally in an environmental and socially sustainable way.
N55 / Ion Sørvin and Till Wolfer
For more and current information, see their website.
