The Girl Is Innocent

Artist: Arturas Raila (LI)
Genre: Documentary
Lithuania, 1999 / 17 min (Mini DV), colour & sound

The Film
Education, as an issue, in the broadest definition, is crucial to the work of Arturas Raila. The long-term effects of Soviet era isolation, semi-literate discourse and submission to hierarchical structures has become a counter point in recent works. For almost a decade, Arturas Raila has taught at a Vilnius secondary school of fine art. This video is just barely edited from footage of a teachers’ conference in autumn 1998. Its narrative suspense apart, the work releases anti-Western undercurrents, usually withheld from public screenings. It demonstrates rather than denounces, but demonstrates well enough to unmask, and to warrant subsequent expulsion from the pedagogical collective.
Text: Anders Kreuger

Arturas Raila
Arturas Raila (b. 1962 in Rainaiciai, Lithuania) lives in Vilnius. 1983–1989 he attended the Lithuanian State Art Institute, Department of Sculpture in Vilnius. His Solo Exhibitions include: Participation/Vytaute at the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania (2001); Primitive Sky, IBID Projects in Vilnius, Lithuania (2002); Roll Over Museum at The Art Museum of Estonia, Exhibition Hall in Rotermann Salt Storage in Tallinn, Estonia; Roll Over Museum/Live at the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania and Roll Over Museum/Railway Version, at the Railway Museum in Riga, Latvia (2004). He has also participated in a variety of group exhibitions around the world.

NIFCA Web 2.0 / Projects / Projects and events / CRISS - CROSS / Where Did They Disappear? / The Girl Is Innocent

http://www.nifca.org//projects/events/crisscross/Where_Did_They_Disappear/The_Girl_Is_Innocent.html