D (Detroit)

In Felix Malnig's 2007 video D, a protean view of downtown Detroit is seen from the elevated tracks of the People Mover, a transportation system that circles the inner city. The train allows the rider - and the viewer - to see a passing city in a slow state of renewal but still blighted by neglect, failed projects and its own economically and socially challenged history.
Along the way, the Renaissance Center appears; an important symbol of urban regeneration initiated in the early 1970s after rioting left the city burned and battered. The RenCen was completed in 1977 but never lived up to its potential as a spark for the development of new downtown. For Malnig, the Renaissance Center is an important symbol of the reality of many urban projects that attempt to positively change the fabric of urban living but that become empty commercial islands in the end, that do little to connect to the community or serve its constituents.

(Dan Devening, 2008)