Flatfile » Sarah Mendolsohn »

Location: Vienna

Sarah Mendolsohn

: I think about it every day (desert) Still from ongoing video project, with Fred Schmidt-Arenales, December 2013

: I think about it every day ("Invasions of the West Bank were happening more and more…") Still from ongoing video project, with Fred Schmidt-Arenales, December 2013

: Stonebreakers Conference Room Oil painting on wall, 62 x 126 inches, 2013

: Walk Around Me in Circles Until You Get Tired and Then Go Home Still from video (24:22), with Fred Schmidt-Arenales, 2013 There are two people in an apartment in Chicago delivering monologues. Fred is having trouble writing. He attributes this to a past love affair with a famous artist. He recalls a few moments from that relationship, a nostalgic era. Returning to the present, he tells the story of his recent trip to Baghdad, Iraq. On the way, he meets a Fascist in the airport in Rome, who invites Fred to have sex with his wife. Fred declines and continues to Istanbul, where he rents a car to drive to Baghdad. When he finally gets there, he makes a new friend, and together they take down the statue of Saddam Hussein, in Firdos Square. However, Fred has trouble forgetting his relationship with the famous artist. Interspersed are a series of phone messages, left by Sarah, telling of her experiences in Athens with a new lover, Giorgos Katidis. Giorgos is a professional soccer player, and, as she later discovers, a member of the Golden Dawn. Fred returns and recites a poem. Sarah closes with a final anecdote about the West Side Highway. Over the course of these monologues, there is some movement within the Chicago apartment: sitting, listening, cleaning, rubbing. A mysterious third party, a dancer, bears witness to the experience. Who is she? Who does she belong to?

: Walk Around Me in Circles Until You Get Tired and Then Go Home Still from video (24:22), with Fred Schmidt-Arenales, 2013

: Walk Around Me in Circles Until You Get Tired and Then Go Home Set for performance, with Fred Schmidt-Arenales, FIT, New York, December 2, 2013