Notice: The CJM will be closed on Thursday, May 9 for a private event.

“Artists on Holocaust and Memory”—Panel Discussion with Bernice Eisenstein, Loli Kantor, and Lisa Kokin

Panel discussion for From Generation to Generation: Inherited Memory and Contemporary Art, on view Nov 25, 2016–Apr 2, 2017 at The Contemporary Jewish Museum.

From Generation to Generation artists Bernice Eisenstein, Loli Kantor, and Lisa Kokin create art that engages memories of lives lost in the Holocaust using the artistic mediums of text, painting, photography, textile, and sculpture. In a panel discussion moderated by Assistant Curator Pierre-François Galpin, they discuss their artistic process as well as how the difficult subject matter informs their work and their own inherited memories.

Recorded Dec 1, 2016.

about the panelists

Lisa Kokin's installations made from found objects, clothing, and animal parts deal with her personal relationship to the Holocaust. Her Jewish family was able to leave Europe before the rise of Hitler’s troops yet the events still haunt her identity. Inventory was created after Kokin visited the Auschwitz extermination camp and seeing each tiniest of objects transformed into a powerful symbol of memory. She was given the Dorothy Saxe Invitational Award for Creativity in Contemporary Arts from The CJM in 2012.

In 2004, Loli Kantor began exploring the subject of Jewish presence and absence in Eastern Europe, both from a personal as well as a universal perspective, focusing mainly on Jewish life in Poland and Ukraine. Conceived as a short-term project, the work has evolved into nearly a decade of a photographic exploration.

Bernice Eisenstein is a Toronto artist and author. Her graphic memoir, I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors (2006), was adapted into an animated short film in 2010. Combining both words and images, her artwork explores the process of memory, about the Holocaust and her family narrative. In 2016, Bernice had a solo exhibition, "Portraits of Memory," at the Selz Foundation Gallery.

Pierre-François Galpin is Assistant Curator at The Contemporary Jewish Museum. His interests overlap between photography, new media, and performance art with a focus on conceptual art and storytelling practices. Prior to The CJM, he has worked at the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Independent Curators International, New York; CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, among other places. His writing has been published in such media as The Exhibitionist, Art Practical, and for RITE Editions. His recent exhibitions include In That Case: Havruta in Contemporary Art with Kota Ezawa and James Kirby Rogers; and From Generation to Generation: Inherited Memory and Contemporary art co-curated with Lily Siegel.

From Generation to Generation: Inherited Memory and Contemporary Art is organized by The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco. Lead sponsorship is provided by the Koret Foundation and Gaia Fund. Major sponsorship is provided by Dorothy R. Saxe and Wendy and Richard Yanowitch. Patron sponsorship is provided by Shana Nelson Middler and David Middler and by Anita and Ronald Wornick. Supporting sponsorship is provided in honor of Ellen Kahn. Additional support is provided by Rosanne and Al Levitt and an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum’s exhibition program is supported by a grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.