No module Published on Offcanvas position

Idea: 2006 | start of construction 2017 | completion: 2020

The aim of the project is to bring back into our everyday social life the mostly and strongly suppressed and hidden topic "dying, death and finiteness". And road traffic is a central place for interaction and communication.

The funeral wheel is specially designed and built for its intended purpose according to the legal regulations of the STVZO and the funeral ordinance of Lower Saxony and is therefore much more than a work of art.

Funeral bike
Detailed view
Funeral bicycle
Marktplatz Oldenburg
Funeral bike
Pferdemarkt Oldenburg
Funeral bicycle

It embodies a clear contrast to the life and behaviour practice of the "more-faster-farther-larger-louder-higher...-..." of everyday life today, namely

  • Insight into the implicitness of finiteness
  • Inner hold
  • Contemplation
  • Deceleration
  • The counter-draft to the materialistic world view of the western world
  • Dealing with the moment, the NOW as an interface between past and future
  • The ancient practice of giving the deceased their final resting place, of burying / carrying a loved one together.

As I am a freelance artist, art technician, stage designer and journeyman in the two-wheeler mechanic trade as well as having all the knowledge in welding, construction and the like, it was only logical to use the "bicycle" as a pictorial means to bring the subject of "dying and transience" into our everyday social life.

I deliberately designed the wheel with the coffin on the loading area in front of the steering. In this way it pays tribute and respect to the deceased fellow man and his life to a much greater extent than hiding the coffin of a corpse in the boot of a motor vehicle that cannot be seen.

Therefore I have reduced all technical-constructive, creative and pictorial means to a minimum. The coffin should - and must - be at the centre of the event. The vehicle is extremely filigree, and "light". And not black either, but dark blue.

The funeral bicycle can be requested for use by any regional funeral home with me or another person as driver.

Price on request.

Contact me under:

Michael Olsen
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
oder Tel.: 0177 - 4 33 46 16

Photos: © Jörg Hemmen, Oldenburg

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