BECK-NIELSEN HANNOVER - (1995-1999)

In the years from 1995-1999 Beck-Nielsen lived as the 20th Century Ghost exiled out in the nowhere city of Hannover in central Germany. There he founded the company Beck-Nielsen Hannover to prepare the city for the EXPO 2000 world fair that should turn Hannover into "the gate into the future" ("Tor in die Zukunft"). Together with his partner, the photographer Herr Stelter, Beck-Nielsen throughout the four last years of the Millennium met with all the "important" and "significant" personalities of Hannover and the Land Niedersachsen. With each of these Beck-Nielsen spent half an hour discussing the possibilities of bringing the entire world to Hannover and thereby turn the hitherto featureless provincial city into the World City. Each meeting ended with a photography, and so the result was a series of pictures.
The rest of his days Beck-Nielsen spent in company with his companion driving through Hannover searching for fractures in the featureless where he could step out and take his place and with his mere presence - an enigmatic, radiant absence - turn the picture of the city into a world city. And so he did.



Among the personalities of Hannover and Land Niedersachsen who met with Beck-Nielsen were: the mayor, the biscuit magnate, the bishop, the rock stars, the porn film producer, the city theatre director, the city opera director, the neurosurgeon, the philosopher, the football manager, the princess, the director of the regional museum, the gallerist, the barrister, the bank director, the EXPO director, the minister for the environment, the film star, the harpist, the conceptual artist and the restaurant chain tycoon.


www.uwestelter.com/inside/inside_c.html