We have reclaimed our content from social media platforms and now use them simply as noticeboards pointing to the free and open internet. All future updates will be published here. You can also follow us, and anyone else you choose, in N55 SOCIAL MEDIUM. (work in progress)
So the summer holidays are over, and Sigfus and I are back in Copenhagen, settling into our new everyday life. Frode is with his girlfriend Laura on Sandøya in Norway, and Anne has started her new job as head of institute at the School of Architecture in Oslo. Here are a few last pictures from the holidays... Sailing with Frode and Sigfus in our Lynæs, picking cherries with Sigfus, freshly caught…
Sigfus and I have been playing around with an unrealised idea of creating a friendly and peaceful mobile game based on the WALKING HOUSE project. Original Rhino drawings and code for the legs. Here are our first tentative experiments... More to come...
Part of The old fisherman’s house is a more recent extension that is unfortunately in poor condition. We have planning permission to build a new bathroom and ceramics studio, but first we need to save up the money. In the meantime, I have tried to extend the life of the washing machine and tumble dryer with a little rust protection. They have suffered in the damp environment, but after ten years…
And then the mackerel arrived!
Anne and I started the day by taking our sailboat into shallow water, heeling her over with a rope from the mast, and scraping barnacles and mussels off the hull. Now she’s ready for new adventures under sail. Later, we headed out in our fishing boat with our neighbour David, his son Oskar, and Sigfus to set fishing nets. We ended the day by meeting my good friend Tobias and his daughter Liva out…
After finding chanterelles in the forest and picking fresh parsley from the garden, Anne served dinner to the family before spending the warm summer evening throwing pottery in her studio. We have had the kiln here for a long time, but her potter’s wheel has been elsewhere. Now everything has finally been brought together here.
And now it’s finally the summer holidays…
Yesterday was Anne’s last day at the Royal Danish Academy, and with it my last chance to visit the Academy’s “secret” chair study collection. For the first time, I had the opportunity to sit in artist Gunnar Aagaard Andersen’s extraordinary polyurethane foam chair from 1964. I have admired this work ever since my student days. The same is true of Gerrit Rietveld’s chair. Anne was celebrated with a…
Today I met with Jack Liu, an artist and architect from the University of Michigan. Born in Beijing, he studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where one of his professors introduced him to the work of N55. He shared some of his recent projects, and we had an engaging conversation about different ways of working, algorithms, and the relevance of art in relation to society and the…
Reclaim the Internet [fold] I believe it is worth fighting for alternatives to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and other centralized social media platforms. They have made it incredibly easy to publish photos, videos and text and share them with the world. But over time they have also changed the rules. Today, algorithms increasingly decide who gets to see your posts. Even among your so-called friends…
I think the very last place I would have chosen to visit today was the greenhouses at the old Copenhagen Botanical Garden. It was already unbearably hot for someone from Scandinavia like me. But Sigfus insisted that we go on an outing, and the greenhouses were exactly where he wanted to go. It was insanely hot inside, but we had the whole place to ourselves. It has always been one of my favourite…
Yesterday was the hottest day ever recorded in Denmark: 37° Welcome to the future we’ve created for ourselves...
We have lived on Christianshavn in a small 42 m² apartment for the past 16 years. It isn’t much space, but it is ours, and it has allowed us to live affordably in one of Copenhagen’s most attractive, and increasingly expensive, neighbourhoods. Over the years, we have supplemented city life with a small house in the countryside, complete with a studio and a garden, where we spend weekends and…
Yesterday I had the great privilege of joining my friend Per on his beautifully restored boat. He has spent months getting everything back into perfect working order. This was her very first sail since he bought the boat in Sweden and had it transported home. Per is a far more experienced sailor than I am, and it was a real pleasure to watch him trim the sails to perfection. Even when the wind…
Last weekend in Føns before the summer holidays. When we went over to say goodbye to our neighbours, who are also family, before heading back to Copenhagen, we surprised them by finding them having a picnic in their back garden…
Earlier this week I met with my friend, artist Najavaraq Louise Fontain. We had not seen each other for many years, and it was a great pleasure to meet again. She is also the mother of my old and dear friend Nicolai. Najavaraq is currently in Copenhagen together with dancer Marit-Shirin Carolasdotter for a residency at HAUT. Marit-Shirin describes their project here: [fold] Najavaraq Louise…
When I am in Copenhagen, I walk and run at least 10 km every day. It is a good way to think things through. When I wander around the city, I am used to following Ronja. We have an agreement that we do not use a leash, as it feels more dignified for both of us. I love my childhood city and the many good places that still exist, even though the greed of large concentrations of power currently shapes…
Back in my old neighbourhood at Christianshavn. Anne is busy preparing for her new position as Head of Institute at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, so I am working from the apartment, looking after Sigfus and taking care of the household. I have finally worked my way back to running 5 km again after the operation. Everything is functioning normally once more. It is remarkable how the…
Today I met with Yuanmo Xie, Assistant Professor at NYU Shanghai. Originally from China, she first encountered the work of N55 while studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, where she drew extensively on our projects for her master’s thesis in 2015. Since then, she has introduced N55 to the Chinese Futurist Circle and is now exploring the possibility of including…
Playing around with two formative projects from the early and mid-nineties in a new interactive form. The blue dot was originally a small ball mounted on a wall, accompanied by a text about implosion and explosion, and the area surrounding a point. The REVOLUTIONSUPER project began as a number of medicine boxes placed on a wall, each marked with a letter arranged according to a pattern generated…
For the past few weeks I have been working on a new project called N55 SOCIAL MEDIUM. Receiving the Danish State’s lifelong honorary grant has given me something I have not had for a very long time: the freedom to spend time on questions that I find important, whether or not they fit into the logic of the productive order. I have also spent time doing things that had been postponed for years:…
While working on building our new XYZ CARGO website , I came across this photo that Anne took on a family trip to Amager Fælled. The picture goes all the way back to the very beginning of the project, and I think it deserves to be shown!
https://www.xyzcargo.com/
Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday greetings. It feels strange to have reached this age. Suddenly you find yourself at a Palestine demonstration with your grown-up son, and you can have thoughtful conversations with your teenage son (at least sometimes). The older I get, the harder it is to think about the world we’ll leave behind for them. [fold] In many ways, my generation has failed —…
Summer is here and so are the strawberries and the mackerel. We recently bought an old fishing boat and fish as part of our daily activities.We are still working on the SPACEPLATES book And we recently had a visit at the studio from the film crew who are making a short film about SPACEPLATES. Furthermore, there is intensive work underway in Hamburg to realise our contribution to the project…
Enjoy these homemade strawberries from the N55 GARDEN.
I try to keep both feet on the ground at a time when large concentrations of power are systematically trying to abolish language and reality itself. Truth and falsehood seem to mean nothing at the moment and logic and trust have been replaced with brute force.Art and everyday life is more important to me than ever before.My time is divided between Copenhagen and my family and our studio at the…
Happy New Year!We had to speed up our traditional oyster trip with people from the village this year as there was a westerly storm coming. Therefore, the lowest tide was very early in the morning and the sun had not risen. But we managed to find the oyster beds in the dark...
Happy Winter Solstice!600 g salted, homemade trout caviar from the beach. The family is gathered in the old fisherman's house. We picked up a Christmas tree yesterday from Henning, who grows them pesticide-free. the deal is that you cut off the top so the tree can continue to grow...THE LIGHT IS RETURNING NOW!
PS. I caught this nice sea trout the other day! Yesterday I had to bring in my creel/net because of a storm. But a kind and friendly man from the village offered me half of the 20, locally caught lobsters, he had gotten from a friend. So I prepared them and froze them, so they are ready when the family arrives from Copenhagen this weekend...
I try to spend time on some very basic and indigenous forms of behaviour as part of my artistic practice. I don't know where it will lead, but I feel an increasing urge to feel the basic reality around me and not just the scary fantasy that media and the political system are currently building. We don't have much land to produce food at our old fisherman's house, but at the beach in Føns, people…
A greyish, cold November morning in Føns...a dip in the sea, a warm outdoor bath at the harbour hut and a cosy chat with the other winter bathers while looking out towards the horizon. Life is good...I feel grateful...Now, off to the studio and work!
Thanks to everyone for your greetings! Celebrating my first 60 years with Anne and Sigfus in Greece. (Frode had to attend to his architecture studies) I started the day at the Acropolis and sailed to Milos, where we will be for a week. I've dreamed of going to Athens, the cradle of Western civilization, since I was a boy. This was the best gift!
It doesn't get much better than this: a 5 km run in the wonderful landscape around Føns with my faithful Ronja. Then a swim all alone on the beach. Commitment of support for our SPACEPLATES book from the New Carlsberg Foundation. The fishing net is sorted and ready to be put out and I have to work in my studio for the rest of the day...
Anne and I will be giving a talk Thursday 12/6 at 12, in the garden of Designmuseum Denmark. Our collaborator Njord, that produces greenhouses designed by us and Anne Bagger will be presenting 2 different versions of the greenhouses.
I would like to say thank you after receiving some good news today: Thank you to the doctors and nurses at Rigshospitalet for curing my newly discovered melanoma. Thank you to my dentist, Lone Lange and Jarle Aarbakke, who both insisted that I had my mole examined. I had been ignoring it for a long time. Thank you to the Danish Arts Foundation and my colleagues for once again awarding me a working…
An artic visit with Jarle and Thrina in Tromsø, Norway...cross-country and downhill skiing and great company!
Our new greenhouse at Den Bemandede Legeplads (a public playground) in Nørrebroparken, Denmark, Produced by NJORD ApS, designed by N55/Ion Sørvin, Anne Bagger and Anne Romme. Art as a part of everyday life!
44 cubic meters of my past lighter. Freedom! Thanks to the help of those closest to me, my Anne, my sons, my family and my friend Tobias, I have finally started clearing out my house in Sweden. It has primarily been used as storage for old N55 artworks and is now being sold. It has been a burden to think about the place for the last 15 years. It will be great not to be the caretaker of old…
Our amazing Frode graduated from high school today with a great result. His brother Sigfus enjoyed the privilige of putting his hat on. It just makes me so happy...Photos by my wonderful Anne Romme
Todays homemade video from 45 m height over the SHELTER VILLAGE building site...SHELTER VILLAGE by N55 (www.n55.dk) and @anne_romme, in collaboration with Anne Bagger.Help from Till Wolfer, @conorkcoughlan, @per_schandorff, @njord.green and David BabbaThe Project is funded by @statenskunstfond and Tarup Davinde I/S
I love doing projects together with Anne. We both consider the production fase to be an important part of the process. We are finishing the SHELTER VILLAGE at the moment...Opening soon.Photo by Till Wolfer/ N55SHELTER VILLAGE by N55 (www.n55.dk) and @anne_romme, in collaboration with Anne Bagger.Help from Till Wolfer, @conorkcoughlan, @per_schandorff, @njord.greenThe Project is funded by…
Thank you! I have once again received a working grant from the Danish Arts Foundation. The recognition from my colleagues means a lot and I am grateful for their support. Thank you to the Danish Arts Foundation for this opportunity to further develop my work... I am excited about my new life situation, where I can work with art as part of everyday life in the countryside as well as in the city.…
Here is a photo from a study trip with Anne and our kids a few weeks ago to Alhambra in Spain. The photo shows something that I find is beautiful, made by hand by a human being about 900 years ago... The logical consequence of the introduction of AI is that we abolish ourselves. We are slowly being seduced and replaced by machines that are controlled by unscrupulous concentrations of power. In my…
Yesterday I worked on a new BOOK, that focuses on art, politics and everyday life. I stumbled across this picture of our old bohemian life on the houseboat SHIP OF FOOLS on Christianshavn in Copenhagen, with the classic plastic 1972 Citroen Mehari parked on the quayside. It was a great environment, with many different boats and people. In the summer we had barbecues on the quayside in front of…
Happy Solstice and a beautiful 2023!Collecting invasive oysters at the west coast of Denmark, has become a nice tradition...I have made some serious changes to my life, spending more time in our house in the small village Føns. Trying to find a more sustainable and less stressful, but still productive way of living. This is only possible thanks to my wonderful Annes and the kids support. Not…
Tillykke til verdens bedste nabo!
Gylp! har ej fået sagt tillykke!
Thank you everybody! life just seems to get better and better. Anne took this photo this morning as I was on my way down to check the moorings on the sailboat...