Justinian (Justin) Jampol

Justinian (Justin) Jampol is the founder and current executive director of The Wende Museum of the Cold War, an art museum, historical archive, and educational institution in Culver City, California.[1] His work focuses on visual cultural studies and the connection between contemporary art and Cold War iconography. He is also the host and consulting producer of the Travel Channel series Lost Secrets.[2]

Justinian Jampol
Jampol outside of the Wende Museum in Culver City, California in 2019
Born1978 (age 41–42)
Los Angeles, California, United States
EducationUniversity of California, Los Angeles
Oxford University
OccupationFounder and Executive Director of the Wende Museum of the Cold War
Spouse(s)Filomena Lovin

Early life and education

Jampol was born in Los Angeles, California in 1978. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2000 with a B.A. in History.[3] Jampol attended graduate school at Oxford University where he received a Master of Philosophy in Russian and East European Studies, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Modern History.[4] In addition to his leadership role at The Wende Museum, Jampol is adjunct professor at Claremont Graduate University[5] and a frequent commentator on art as well as East European and Russian design.[6]

Career

In 2002, at the age of 24, Jampol founded The Wende Museum (“Wende” is a German word that means transition or change) while studying visual culture at Oxford University.[7] Since opening, the museum has became the largest collection of Cold War era artifacts and artwork outside of Europe.[8]

The Wende Museum is known for its large-scale and often provocative installations. In 2009, in honor of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Jampol brought ten segments (24 tons) of the original Wall from Germany, and placed them along Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, directly across the street from LACMA.[9] At midnight on November 9, 2009, thousands of Angelenos blocked the street to celebrate the monument, which was painted by notable graffiti artists such as Shepard Fairey, RETNA, Heraku, Thierry Noir, and D*Face.[10]

In 2013, Jampol's contribution to Jeremy Deller's UK Pavilion at the Venice Biennale sparked controversy through its implication of Russian oligarchs in the corrupt process of privatization following the collapse of the USSR.[11] In 2014, further controversy followed with the publication of a New York Times Op-Ed article written by Jampol on the political crisis in Ukraine and the destruction of Soviet statues.[12]

In summer 2014, Jampol co-curated Competing Utopias at the Neutra VDL House in Silver Lake, California, installing three floors of modernist Eastern Bloc design in the former home of California-based architect Richard Neutra. The show was #3 in Hyperallergic's annual "Top Ten Exhibitions Across the United States."[13]

In fall 2015, Jampol guest-edited a special supplement of The Art Newspaper on Los Angeles art.[14]

As Executive Director of the Wende Museum, Jampol oversaw the museum's relocation to a former United States National Guard Armory building in Culver City.[15] A 75-year lease of the armory site was unanimously approved by the City Council of Culver City in November 2012.[16] After renovations, the Wende Museum reopened to the public in its new location in November 2017 with an inaugural exhibition titled Cold War Spaces.[17][18]

In December 2019, Foreign Policy published an article written by Jampol titled "Why the Berlin Wall Still Matters."[19]

In January 2020, Jampol was appointed as the Los Angeles Chapter President of the Heidelberg Club International.

Jampol's writing has been featured in The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Times of London.

He is a “Notable Alumnus” of UCLA.[20]

Film and TV production

Jampol has produced several films about the Cold War and is a frequent guest on various Travel Channel programs, including Hotel Secrets & Legends (2014) and Mysteries at the Museum (2014).[21]

From 2015-2018, he was a guest historian on the Cooking Channel program Food: Fact or Fiction? narrated by Michael McKean.[22]

Jampol is the host and consulting producer of the Travel Channel program Lost Secrets, a six-part series that premiered on November 10, 2019.[23][24]

Publications

In 2014, Jampol published a 904-page encyclopedia of the Wende Museum's East German collection titled Beyond the Wall: Art and Artifacts from the GDR.[25] The book was produced by Benedikt Taschen and published by Taschen Books. It received an overwhelmingly positive review in the New York Times Sunday Book Review.[26] The book was launched on November 9, 2014 to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.[27]

In 2019, a smaller second edition of the book, The East German Handbook, was published with text in both English and German.[28]

Personal life

Jampol is married to actress and Wilhelmina model, Filomena Lovin. His brother-in-law is Australian tennis professional Mark Philippoussis.

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References
  1. "History | Wende Museum". www.wendemuseum.org. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  2. "Lost Secrets : Programs : Travel Channel : Discovery Press Web". press.discovery.com. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  3. "UCLA Alumni: JUSTINIAN JAMPOL '00". 2015.
  4. Petrou, Michael (2013-01-30). "A Cold War story told through 70,000 artifacts". Maclean's.
  5. "Cold War LA: History Hidden in Plain Sight - the FlameClaremont Graduate University". Claremont Graduate University. 2014-08-05. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  6. Jampol, Justin (2015-02-10). "Red Space: Promoting a Socialist Destiny".
  7. Engerman, David (2011-06-01). "California's Cold War Museum". Humanities.
  8. McManis, Sam (2014-05-11). "Discoveries: Wende Museum preserves artifacts from Cold War". The Sacramento Bee.
  9. You, Tracy (2014-10-03). "Where's the Berlin Wall now? 10 surprising locations". CNN.
  10. Haithman, Diane (2009-08-12). "Berlin Wall's fall will be memorialized across Wilshire".
  11. "2013 Jeremy Deller | British Council". venicebiennale.britishcouncil.org. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  12. Jampol, Justinian (2014-03-03). "Smashing Lenin Won't Save Ukraine".
  13. "Best of 2014: Our Top 10 Exhibitions Across the United States". 2014.
  14. "Justinian Jampol". www.theartnewspaper.com. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  15. "The Cold War as a museum: At the Wende, one man's 100,000-piece collection finds a new home". Los Angeles Times. 2017-11-16. Retrieved 2020-01-08.
  16. "Culver City approves Cold War museum's lease for new home". LA Times Blogs - L.A. NOW. 2012-11-14. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  17. Donath, Jessica (2017-11-13). "Inside a 1940s Armory in Culver City, a Museum Sheds Light on the Cold War". LA Weekly. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  18. "The Newly Expanded Wende Museum Offers a Nuanced Perspective on the Cold War". Hyperallergic. 2018-04-11. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  19. Jampol, Justin. "Why the Berlin Wall Still Matters". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  20. "The Wall is Still Tumbling Down". UCLA Magazine. 2015.
  21. "Justin Jampol". IMDb. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  22. "IMDB - Justinian Jampol". 2015.
  23. "Lost Secrets : Programs : Travel Channel : Discovery Press Web". press.discovery.com. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  24. "Travel Channel Unearths History's 'Lost Secrets' With Founder of L.A.'s Wende Museum (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  25. Heller, Steven (2015-02-19). "Socialist Regime, Commercial Design". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  26. Welch, David (2014-12-05). "'DDR Posters' and 'Beyond the Wall'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  27. "Culver City's Cold War museum remembers the Berlin Wall's fall". Los Angeles Times. 2014-11-10. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  28. Staff, C. N. N. "Behind the Iron Curtain: Vintage designs from communist East Germany". CNN. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
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