TUESDAY 17TH OCTOBER: WORKSHOP with Aidel

Paesaggi di Feltro / Felt Landscapes is a workshop aimed at investigating the potential of felt as a tool for interpreting the landscape.
Curated by AIDEL (architect duo Cristina Gallizioli and Marco Ferrari), the activity introduces the expressive and functional possibilities of a soft, tactile and plastic material such as felt, to be used in architecture or in the fields of art and design.
The workshop is an opportunity to present the research and design practices of AIDEL, which since 2019 has been working on an experimental concept of "Soft Architecture," investigating the possibilities of soft architecture with anti-solid materials, challenging building conventions and exploring new spatial possibilities.

Program

9-18 Workshop (max 15 participiants)
Free entry, registration required through Eventbrite.
18.30 Talk with Aidel

The activity will be in Italian language.

With the support of Toscanaincontemporanea 2023, the Municipality of Prato and Ordine degli Architetti PPC della Provincia di Prato.

We are happy to present in our Kunsthalle the large tapestry designed by @uros_topic, a Slovenian fashion and textile designer who is currently spending a three-month research period stay at Lottozero.
The tapestry, titled "ROCO(COCKS)", is scattered with references to traditional Slovenian culture, with which aspects related to human rights issues of our contemporary society are interwoven, hidden within the work like a great Renaissance fresco full of meanings to be deciphered. 

Created as part of Uroš Topić master's thesis at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering, University of Ljubljana.

Until July 30th, 2023.

With the support of Toscanaincontemporanea 2023.

Lottozero is looking for a guest curator for Textile Culture Net!

Textile Culture Net is an international network of four textile institutions working on the cutting edge between art, design and fashion: Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź (Poland), Lottozero in Prato (Italy), TextielMuseum in Tilburg (The Netherlands) and CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile) in Hong Kong, who share the common ambition to develop new curatorial practices, engage younger and more diverse audiences and collaborate internationally.
Born informally and spontaneously in spring 2020 against the backdrop of the global pandemic, the four institutions joined forces to conceive what would become a long-running experimental collaboration, spanning a series of online exhibitions and exchanging of ideas, methodologies and skills beyond geographical boundaries. The network intends to develop new curatorial practices, offering space to a diverse palette of cultural perspectives, as well as ways to present, collect and facilitate the making of textile art and design all over the world.
Since 2022 Textile Culture Net is co-funded by the European Union through the Creative Europe Program.
Starting June 2023 until July 2024, all 4 TCN curators and 4 guest curators will meet online monthly in order to define the yearly exhibition program, which consists of 4 online group exhibitions, conceived and designed to be presented on the respective Instagram platforms.

Each guest curator will present the theme of their curatorial proposal and the artists they have selected, and all other curators will be invited to respond with artworks from their collections or their creative network.
The exhibitions, based on different curatorial concepts but connected to textiles, are the result of a collective process, which gathers diverse curatorial approaches, confronted in a dialectical and constructive way.
The exhibitions program will start in September 2023 and will run until June 2024.
At the end of the project, a publication will be realized both in printed and digital version, in order to collect the contents of the 4 online exhibitions.

CURATOR’S COMMITMENTS

• Propose an exhibition concept, based on a selection of artists working with textile media, and/or fashion and textile design, following a specific digital format which has been developed during the previous TCN editions, and will be further developed and improved for the 2023/2024 edition.

• Attend an online workshop held by German association BIWOC Rising, aimed at developing a diversity strategy, as a common and shared ground between the curators involved into the project (3h, in June 2023).

• Propose artworks for the 3 exhibitions presented by the other guest-curators.

• Attend 10 online meetings (1h, from June 2023 to July 2024) with the curators from TCN’s institutions and guest-curators (1 meeting to introduce the curatorial practice, 8 meetings to prepare the 4 exhibitions, 1 final meeting at the end of the project).

• Publish the contents of the 4 exhibitions on his/her personal (or institutional) Instagram account.

• Participation in the project as a guest curator will also be a way to forge closer relations with the inviting institution (Lottozero), with whom there will be some occasions of confrontation/collaboration on certain aspects, which will be better defined later.

REQUIREMENTS

The following requirements will be given priority in the selection process:

• Curatorial experience in the field of textile art, textile design and fashion.

• Having nationality and/or residence in non-European countries and having an in-depth knowledge of the non-European art scene, documented through projects/research carried out.

• Having a curatorial approach that takes into account cross-cutting issues of inclusion and diversity, in particular gender balance.

FEE

The selected curator will receive a fee of EUR 3,000 net of VAT but gross of any other eventual charges (these depend on the individual financial situation, like geographic location and local laws).
The fee will be paid in two installments, a deposit of 30% after signing the contract and the rest at the end of the project.

HOW TO APPLY

Applications must be submitted by 14 May 2023 by filling in the online form at this link: TYPE FORM

Previous TCN online exhibitions (2020-2023) have been published on the TCN institutions’ Instagram channel, with a series of posts framed by the TCN logo:

Lottozero IG
TextielMuseum IG
Central Museum of Textiles IG
CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile) IG

Textile Culture Net is an international network of four textile institutions: Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź (Poland), Lottozero in Prato (Italy), TextielMuseum in Tilburg (The Netherlands) and CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textiles) in Hong Kong.

Born informally and spontaneously in spring 2020 against the backdrop of the global pandemic, the four institutions joined forces to conceive what would become a long-running experimental collaboration. TCN’s fourth edition for 2023/2024 is co-funded by the European Union, within the framework of the prestigious Creative Europe program.

TCN’s online exhibitions are published on the Instagram accounts of the institutions and connected by the hashtag #TextileCultureNet. The exhibitions program will start in September 2023. The existence of the network will be strengthened through a publication which aims to collect the content of the online exhibitions and will be launched in June 2024, during a public event held at Lottozero in Prato, Italy.

To select its guest curator, Lottozero has launched an open call, open until May 7, 2023.

The ninth edition of the Margherita Bandini Datini Award organized by the women's committees of CNA, Confartigianato, Confesercenti and Confcommercio was held on Thursday, March 9th in Prato Italy.
We are proud to say that Cna Toscana Centro awarded Lottozero as the best female entrepreneur team for creating a unique space where creativity, innovation, art and textile training come together.  
Check out the video they made about us! 

"Aprto" (anagram of "Prato") is a day of shared art openings for Lottozero, Accaventriquattro Arte and ChorAsis, relaunching a synergy for contemporary art in Prato.´

Lottozero presents
Anna Samoylova - Margherita Soldati. Open studio artistic residencies. Curated by Alessandra Tempesti
4.30 p.m. talk by Anna Samoylova 'Traditional Russian costumes and influences in contemporary design'.
Via Arno, 10

At Villa Rospigliosi, Chorasis presents
Chiara Bettazzi, Living Room. Curated by Mirco Marino
Via Firenze, 83

At the Saletta Campolmi, Accaventiquattro Arte presents
Marcello Spada - Like a Virgin. Curated by Gabriele Tosi
Via Puccetti, 3

Saturday 18 February 2023, from 11 am to 8 pm

Under the patronage of the Municipality of Prato

In the very beginning of 2023 Lottozero was given the amazing opportunity to visit our fellow textile hub, Le Textile Lab Lion, for a week in order to extend our international network and learn and share best practices! This was made possible through the Creative Flip Twin Hubs and the European Creative Hubs Network Staff exchange Programs.

NOW, we are excited to extend this outstanding opportunity to a member of our Italian Community and we are pleased to announce an OPEN CALL for designers and makers, which will allow one participant to travel to Lyon for one week (April24th to 30th), stay and work at Le Textile Lab, and take part in our final event!
The participant will be provided with funding for travel and accommodation.

To apply please send a selection of works and bio, website or Instagram and a short motivation letter to info@lottozero.org.

Deadline to apply: February 19th, 2023

We are happy to announce that we’ve won a voucher for the acquisition of innovative equipment and machinery for the implementation of our Circular Wool Laboratory; we have been working with local rustic wool for many years and now we want to give the same opportunity to our designers and artists in residency: they will be able to experiment and discover new applications for this unused wool directly in our laboratory by using our new machinery.

In total eight vouchers of 5,000 euros each were awarded at the end of the second call aimed at SMEs in the Cultural and Creative Industry sector working in the circular economy. Vouchers funded by the INNOMED UP project, which is part of the ENI CBC MED European program aimed at cross-border cooperation in the Mediterranean.

Photo by Rachele Salvioli

On Saturday 15 October, Lottozero presents the closing event of the art residency with artists Gvantsa Jishkariani (living in Tiblisi, Georgia), Manuel Resch and Maximilian Maria Willeit, an artist duo originally from Bolzano, based in Berlin. 

Part of the project 'Tangled: Lottozero Culture Club', the residency was born from the desire to activate new creative synergies and socializing opportunities after the forced isolation due to the pandemic, bringing to Prato young artists from different cultural and international contexts, and inviting them to get to know both the productive environment of Prato's textile district and the local art scene: Phase, an artist collective from Prato, has been invited to realize a performance for the final day of the residency.

The event is also an opportunity to open the doors of Lottozero's textile laboratories, in a day dedicated to discovering the techniques it offers. The machinery and tools available in the workshop will be shown, with small demonstrations to explain how they work and the opportunity to try your hand at working with yarns and fabrics.

PROGRAM

10.30-13 / 14-17.30: Open Day textile laboratories (booking recommended, please write to info@lottozero.org)
18.00: Performance by Phase
To follow aperitif and dj set

In collaboration with Center for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci
The project is realized within the framework of Toscanaincontemporanea 2022
Giovanisì - Tuscany Region
A special thanks to the Manifattura Maiano company for the supply of the textile fibres

For the second year Lottozero is part of  BAW - Bolzano Art Weeks which offers more than 150 contemporary art events located in galleries, museums, ateliers and independent spaces in the city.

This year BAW proposed a theme: Memento/ Moment(o)/Monument(o), to which we responded with an exhibition project by Florentine artist Lisa Mara Batacchi in the Merkantilmuseum in Bolzano.
Entitled "Sand Storms in Medio Mundi" her project consists of a series of large tapestries woven manually on a loom by the artist, in collaboration with expert weavers and restorers.

Don't miss the guided tour of the exhibition this Saturday 1st of October at 5 p.m. with the artist Lisa Batacchi and our curator Alessandra Tempesti!

Free entrance, reservation recommended (admission subject to availability, please write to: alessandra@lottozero.org)

We are excited to finally announce one of the latest latest projects we have been working on!
TECOFASH is a project by 7 Partners from 5 EU countries which has the main objective to contribute to a competitive and sustainable European fashion industry.
In the next year and a half we will be rolling out a FREE online training for fashion designer and start ups, which will focus on extremely useful and practical issues. We will be condensing all out common theoretical and practical knowledge into an easily accessible course which will answer what we have found to be most sustainable fashion entrepreneurs Frequently Asked Questions and provide the ideal starting base for true economic, social and environmental key for sustainability.
Check out our amazing partners MEUSkills, iED - Institute of Entrepreneurship Development, Regionalna Izba Gospodarcza w Katowicach, Association for the Promotion of Old Crafts and Culture "Wici", Centre For Education and Entrepreneurship Support – Poland, LATIA

Read all about it in our first newsletter and in our second newsletter.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

The Lottozero project Fashion School has been picked as one of the Creative Flip Learning Labs in time for the European Year of Youth (EYY2022).

Learning Labs are cross-sectoral projects between organisations of the cultural and creative sphere on the one hand, and local primary and secondary schools on the other. A diverse group of 15 Creative Facilitators and their LLabs, representing different sectors such as Architecture, Design & Fashion, Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Media and Press, Audio-visual and Cultural Heritage & Museums, was selected by the jury in mid-June.

Lottozero is partnering up with South Tyrolean Art School "Walther von der Vogelweide" to implement the 8 month Fashion School project which has the goal to help the students go from having a very generic idea about what they want to do in life (something related to art), to actually taking the steps towards a successful (and profitable) career that heavily involves and shines a light on their creative talent.

Art students are interested in making a living from their art and creativity need to be demonstrated right direction: Fashion production allows the daily use of artistic talent, creative mindset and manufacturing skills. In this area we find all those professionals who contribute to the research, creation and production of the product.

We have the ambition to help create future fashion professionals, who at the same time have high job satisfaction. Among the most in-demand figures at this particular time are profiles that straddle many professional fields being able to combine technical skills, creativity and an expanded humanistic vision.

The program will officially kick-off in September with the beginning of the new school year and run until May 2023.

Lottozero is excited to join the Fab CIty Hamburg event: Circular Design Deep Dive a three day dive into the topic of circular design with lectures, workshops and networking events at the Design Zentrum in Hamburg.

International and local experts unite to present best practices and visionary projects that demonstrate circularity, the topic will then be discussed in workshops to develop applicable principles for circular design.

Check out the schedule and don’t forget to register!

Our very own Elena Ianeselli, Director of Fashion Design and Sustainability here a Lottozero will hold a workshop on Thursday 23.06.22, focusing on education for sustainable design. What are the new skills and competencies a designer needs to make and think circular design?

Please register here if you would like to join her

We are excited to announce that on Wednesday, May 18th starting at 6 p.m., we will hold SHEMAKES - Female Entrepreneur Mixer an aperitif dedicated to female entrepreneurship, but open to all, which will take place at Lottozero's headquarters at 10 Via Arno, Prato, where experienced female entrepreneurs from the district and young start-ups from the world of sustainable fashion will meet with the aim of helping each other and creating new connections.

Participating ENTREPRENEURS:
Elif Malkoclar Craafts 
Maria Pia Sorreca La Datina 

Participating DESIGNERS:
Eva Di Franco 
Marina Semprini 
Francesca Mocali 

This project is part of shemakes, a two-year project funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, with the goal of empowering future innovators in the sustainable fashion industry through inspiration, skills and networks.

This project has the Patronage of the City of Prato and in collaboration with CNA Tuscany.

During the week of May 16-20, Lottozero, will host the Future Textile Net. 

Future Textile Net is a 7-day exchange program between European creative hubs working in the field of textile design and art: Le Textile Lab, from Lyon, France; The Textile Prototyping Lab from Berlin, Germany; and FashionGreenHub from Roubaix, France and the European Creative Hubs Network.

The main objective of this meeting is the presentation of best practices, exchange of know-how, information on infrastructure, data, networks, and the planning of a roadmap toward an exchange network involving other creative hubs dedicated to textiles throughout Europe.

This project is co-funded by the i-Portunus Houses pilot scheme, which is implemented, on behalf of the European Commission, by a consortium of organisations that have been pioneers of European cultural mobility programmes themselves. Coordinated by the European Cultural Foundation (Amsterdam), the i-Portunus Houses consortium involves MitOst (Berlin) as main mobility implementer and the Kultura Nova Foundation (Zagreb) as lead in evaluation and analysis.

Saturday May 14th we are hosting the FUTURE FIBERS Symposium which we are hosting in collaboration with UNIBZ, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. https://www.unibz.it/  

We have invited a panel of speakers- textile designers, and industry professionals- to reflect on how their role as designers  and their experience working with fibres and fabrics can shed light on ways in which those who are part of the textile industry can contribute to a more sustainable future.  Taking into account alternative approaches to working with materials, technology and various systems of production, we will delve into the values that underpin a sustainable design practice and the awareness that is necessary to align these values with practical and realistic action.

Over the course of the event, we will have presentations from;

Lara Wernert, 13RUGS, discussing the role of remnants in circular textile production and the role the textile designer in bringing about sustainable change and innovation and how both of these approaches shape 13RUGS as a brand.

https://www.13rugs.com/en/

Sara Diaz Rodriguez, Studio HILO, discussing the need to take a different perspective on textile production and the importance of the open-source approach in areas of education, creativity and business.

https://www.studiohilo.com/

Nienke Hoogvliet, discussing the values that lie at the core of a sustainable design practice working with fibers and fabric, along with the steps involved in changing the existing perception around textile consumption.

https://www.nienkehoogvliet.nl/

The symposium will take place on Saturday 14th May at 11.00 CET. 

We are thrilled to announce that starting last week our MADE PROGRAM Fashion and Textile design course Students of the fine arts Academy in Syracuse, Sicily have arrived in Prato!

For the next 6 weeks, both the first and second year students will be immersing themselves in the textile district, studying, working and experimenting in our very own textile laboratory. 

For more information on this program write to info@madeprogram.it

Within the cycle of cross-hubs workshops organized by the CreativeWearPLUS Project, the Prato Textile Museum in collaboration with the University of Evora and Passa Ao Futuro, organizes an online event focusing on sustainability of traditional textile craftsmanship, presenting some contemporary experiences from Tuscany (IT) and Alentejo (PT) regions. The workshop aims to offer a perspective through the lens of local and global market opportunities and the urgency of knowledge transfer of the sector.

WORKSHOP AGENDA - starting at 4PM CET (3PM WET)

• 16.00 (15.00 WET) | Welcome greetings and workshop introduction: Filippo Guarini, Director of Prato Textile Museum.

• 16.10 (15.10 WET) | The Tuscan experiences introduction: Arianna Moroder, Lottozero Textile Laboratories.

• CRAAFTS. handcrafted surfaces for fashion & interiors: Elif Malkoclar, founder and designer.

• Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio:
  Eva Basile, designer and textile expert.

• 16.55 (15.55 WET) | The Alentejo experiences introduction:
  Fatima Durkee, co-founder Passa Ao Futuro Association

• Fábrica Alentejana de Lanifícios:

  Mizette Nielsen, founder and textile designer.

• Saber Fazer:
  Alice Bernardo, founder and coordinator.

• 17.40 (16.40 WET) | Q&A Session and open debate.

  Participants are kindly invited to register for the workshop by filling in the following form

  https://forms.gle/Cs9V1u8Vgk2WXoR58