Commissioned by the Left Book Club to educate the public on the social and economic deprivation in England’s industrial north, George Orwell wrote The Road to Wigan Pier (1936) in two parts: For the first, he detailed his experience living with coal miners; in the second, he pled for social justice, a democratic socialism of equality and fairness, to challenge the privileged (like himself) to develop a political conscience. At a moment when socialism is one of the most searched words on Merriam-Webster’s site, Rebecca Shatwell, director of “AV Festival 2016: Meanwhile, what about Socialism?” (the subtitle borrowed from Orwell’s treatise), offers up works from international artists and filmmakers who examine historical and contemporary political and social movements––reassessing them and conjuring new possibilities for protest and change. Standouts include Moscow-based Haim Sokol’s Testimony, 2015, a durational performance recorded on video that becomes a monument to memory, hidden narratives, and trauma. The intelligent defacement of Dan Perjovschi’s No Graffiti on Barbwire Walls, 2016, fills a gallery, where he makes political and cultural commentary on current events with newspapers and his blunt, humorous drawings.

Indian filmmaker Pallavi Paul’s Nayi Keti (New Harvest), 2013; Shabdkosh (A Dictionary), 2013; and Long Hair, Short Ideas, 2014, are a trilogy about the revolutionary poet Vidrohi, who practiced resistance as a material of life while reevaluating his politics every day. He existed in the moment, refusing to be subjugated by a cultural past. This series calls to mind a line from Orwell’s 1984: “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”

— Lauren Dyer Amazeen