K A R E N L O H R M A N N [born in Hamburg, based in Los Angeles, Berlin, and Naples] combines her background in art and architecture with writing, teaching, editorial and curatorial projects. She is cofounder of SdMKLm, producer at Urban States, Correspondents editor, initiator of Bay of Mars, and program coordinator for the Master of Science in Design of Cities at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, SCI-Arc.
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Central to her multidimensional practice is the focus on editorial processes as critical and projective tools in the narration of landscape. In viewing landscape as the image of the whole, she studies territorial and time-based conditions to understand when trends turn into movements, and how immediate environments transition into visual culture. This has grown from a long involvement with the exterior—EXT.—as a specific setting, as ambience, vision, and as the immanent whole of what once separated into natural and artificial.
SdMKLm
SdMKLm is the studio practice of Karen Lohrmann and Stefano de Martino. They address spaces in transformation, cultural manifestations and resultant landscapes. Their work is exhibited and published internationally. They have released three monographs and jointly run the platform Urban States, the edition Correspondents and the testing ground Bay of Mars. As part of Bay of Mars, they recently completed the spatial and ecological adjustment and reclamation of a 16th century rural complex and experimental landscape, in the Gulf of Naples. Their ongoing cycle of works, Waiting Land, was one of the conceptual segments of the FRAC’s Second Biennale d’Architecture d’Orleans, Years of Solitude. They currently work on Enduring Temporariness, a part fiction part documentary script, visual and sound essay on venture landscapes.
BAY of MARS
Bay of Mars is a multimedia testing ground. An experimental landscape in its origins, the name is borrowed from a plain, and now extinct location. Bay of Mars migrates to likewise and otherwise friendly environments—online, and in the form of spaces, sets, exhibitions, periodicals, time-based work, unique items, and occasional events. Marking a broad field of contributors and collaborations, Bay of Mars connects the studio practice SdMKLm with Urban States for research, Correspondents for all printed matter and, most recently, XRX for testing, production, and outfitting.
PUBLICATIONS
Karen Lohrmann is coauthor of Update: All Possible Worlds [2008], How We Spent It [2009], and Waiting Land [2017], the editor of Midsize America [2012], and the edition Correspondents [2009—ongoing], and coeditor of the essay collection Clear Skies with Patches of Grey [2003]. Her writings include essays, reviews, and retrospective scripts—a form of writing derived from the diversity of her practices. She occasionally also authors or edits zines, posters and other unlimited printed matter.
ACADEMIC
Trained in architecture, art history, and scenic design at Aachen University, ETH Zurich, Zurich University of the Arts, and TU Berlin, she combines these fields in her classes. She is faculty at SCI-Arc and coordinator of the MS in Design of Cities postgraduate program. Prior to joining SCI-Arc, she taught at TU Berlin, UCLA AUD, Harvard GSD, and the University of Innsbruck.
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IMGS
Pompei After Lunch [moving image, 2018]
What Was Left [detail, 2019]
mail[at]karenlohrmann.net