Ken Kobland

Biography

Since the 1970's Ken Kobland has been producing independent film and video works, including collaborative projects with the experimental theater company The Wooster Group. Through metaphor, provocation and association, Kobland often explores the historical meaning, critical context, and received notions of a particular site or place. He writes, "I 'dream' a place... The work is principally about reflecting on the meaning of a site; historically, psychically, and physically. It's about the saturation of place. The place in our heads and the place on the ground." Kobland is currently working on a new film/video work, Who Writes Remains, and a collaborative feature film project with The Wooster Group.

Ken Kobland was born in New York in 1946. He studied at Columbia University School of Architecture and Union College. Since 1975 he has worked with the Wooster Group. Kobland has received awards and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation; the New York Foundation on the Arts; the D.A.A.D. Berliner Kunstprogramm; the International Center for Video Creation in Montbeliard, France; the Jerome Foundation; and the American Film Institute. His work has been included in film and video festivals in Geneva, Berlin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Sydney, Budapest, Warsaw, Tokyo, and Bangkok, and has been screened at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Biennial; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Arsenal, Berlin. Kobland's work has also been screened nationally on Public Television and in Europe. He lives in New York.