OPEN HOUSE 31:00, high definition video, 2009

 “Readily visible under the thin veneer of real estate ads pushing Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s future as a destination for the moneyed, yet “hip”, classes is an urban renewal project on a scale not seen since Robert Moses’ “slum” clearance of the 1960’s. Documenting the brutal nature of the development spree which occurred as a result of the neighborhood’s re-zoning from light manufacturing/residential to the loosening of codes that allowed for forty story towers on the waterfront, Nerwen’s video offers stark evidence against the cheerful notion that the unrestricted laws of free markets are “good for everyone”. With images of a neighborhood being literally torn apart by outside developers capitalizing on a frenzied housing market, and locals under pressure to “sell out” while the price is right, this work documents aspects of an incredible drama that has been woefully underreported in the mainstream media.”

Text by Peter Scott, carriage trade, NY 
Market Forces/ Part 1: Consuming Territories

Screenings: Documentary Fortnight, Museum of Modern Art, NY; video_dumbo, Brooklyn, NY, HDFEST Seattle, Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Germany, MMX Open Art Venue, Berlin, Germany, Experiments in Cinema V5.1 Film Festival, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Athens International Film Festival, Ohio, Rooftop Films, Brooklyn, NY Exhibitions (Chapter 1: Removal): "Market Forces/Consuming Territories", Carriage Trade Gallery, NY; Momenta Art, Williamsburg, Brooklyn; Hordaland Art Center, Bergen, Norway; Erna Hecey Gallery, Brussels, Belgium