Lottozero invites applications from independent fashion brands for a one-week residency in the heart of Italy’s Prato fashion and textile district; a district famous for offering all phases of fashion production.

The goal is to introduce brands to the sourcing, production, and circular innovation opportunities available within the Prato textile district—Europe’s leading hub for recycled materials, textile development, and manufacturing.

The residency offers full access to Lottozero’s creative hub, textile lab, and shared studios, along with a curated introduction to the district’s extensive network of textile suppliers, manufacturers, and circular production resources. This is an opportunity to experience firsthand what it means to design and produce locally—within one of Europe’s most advanced textile ecosystems.

What’s Included: 

• One-week stay in the Lottozero residency apartment (single or duo occupancy)

• Full access to our Textile Lab, Creative Hub, and shared workspaces

• Guided tours of the Prato textile district, including:

• Visits to suppliers of stock fabrics, regenerated, recycled, and natural fibers

• Meetings with local producers and manufacturers

• Textile archives and circular economy hubs

• Tailored introductions to sourcing and production partners based on your brand’s needs

Who Should Apply:

We welcome applications from independent fashion brands that:

• Have an established identity and collection(s) in development or production

• Are interested in sourcing materials and producing garments locally

• Want to explore how working in Prato can support a more sustainable, flexible, and traceable supply chain

About the Residency:

The selected brand will spend one focused week at Lottozero, using our infrastructure and network to explore what the Prato district can offer their creative and production process. The residency also serves as a way to promote the opportunities available to brands working through Lottozero and with local partners.

How to Apply:

To apply, fill out the application form with:

• A short description of your brand and current work (max 300 words)

• A website or social media link

• A statement explaining what you hope to research, source, or develop during your residency in Prato

Application deadline: August 31st
Residency dates: September 29th to October 5th
Travel and meals are not included.

Melanie Read at the RE-DESIGNING WASTE: Pocket Politics Workshop, presented as part of Melbourne Fashion Festival’s Independent Programme

Melanie Read is an Australian fashion practitioner whose research-driven practice combines speculative design, sustainable systems, and experimental textile development. Her work explores how materials and making processes can shape alternative futures—social, ecological, and industrial—through a deep engagement with local contexts and global challenges.

Melanie Read holds a Honours degree of Fashion (Design) from RMIT University in Melbourne, where she supports the Fashion Design program as a technical assistant in garment construction and machine training.
She is the founder of Future Archive, is a Naarm/Melbourne based Fashion practice tackling textile waste issues through research led design.

For the whole month of July 2025, Melanie Read is in residence at Lottozero, where she continues working on her long-term project Future Archive. During her time in Prato, Read will investigate the city’s historic textile industry with a particular focus on the recycled wool supply chain, one of the oldest and most advanced circular economies in the world.

Engaging directly with local material flows, and industrial processes, and working in the Lottozero lab, Read will explore how design can act as a critical tool to map, question, and reimagine the systems that underpin textile production. Her process will include on-site research, sampling, and material prototyping using reclaimed and regenerated fibers sourced from within the Prato district and beyond.

Barbara Prenka explores themes of identity—both individual and collective—and migration. For years, the blanket has been at the core of her artistic research: a symbol of care and protection, a constant presence in our lives, but also a silent witness to conflict and social marginality.

Between July and September 2025, Barbara Prenka is in residence at Lottozero, where she further investigates the transformation of the blanket, recreated from scratch as a plastic object between painting and sculpture, into a spatial, three-dimensional form.
Her process involves experimenting with digital embroidery and layering new narrative elements onto the work.

The outcome of the residency will be a new series of textile sculptures, which will premiere during the Bolzano Art Weeks (BAW) in October 2025, and will later be exhibited at the Lottozero Kunsthalle as the third chapter of our Soft Sculpture biennial exhibitions program.

Born in 1990 in Gjakova, Kosovo, Barbara Prenka holds both a BA and MA in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. She currently lives and works between Berlin, Bolzano, and Venice.
Her recent solo exhibitions include Covers, curated by Zef Paci at Arthouse Shkodër (2025) and at the Ministry of Culture Gallery in Prishtina (2024); What time is it between my fingers? at A plus A Gallery, Venice (2025); and Dita e re at the Kosovo Documentation Center in Prishtina (2023).

Prenka’s residency is part of our Soft Sculpture program, supported by Toscanaincontemporanea 2025 and the Province of South Tyrol, Department of Culture.

Barbara Prenka, Do You Recognize the Corner next to the Window?, 2024, digitally printed fabric, sewn and padded with wadding and canvas, series of 7 pieces, 190 x 140 cm. Courtesy the artist.

We’re excited to take part in the 3rd edition of Aprto – Aperture del contemporaneo a Prato, a summer night where seven spaces across the city open their doors for exhibitions, performances, and installations.
“Aprto” is an anagram of “Prato” — a twisted, hard-to-pronounce word that reflects the unconventional ways these spaces engage with the local territory.

Come visit us for a special opening of “Every Month I Weave”, a solo exhibition by Liselore Frowijn @studiofrowijn (5 pm - 11 pm).
Through a series of textile sculptures and jacquard tapestries informed by contemporary ecofeminist thought, the artist reinterprets the life of Margherita Datini, wife of the renowned 14th-century textile merchant from Prato, to offer a political reflection on the historically unrecognized labor of women within Western economic systems.
We’ll also be presenting a special edition of artist multiples, created by Frowijn and co-produced with Lottozero.

Throughout the evening, get hands-on with upcycled crafts — from screen printing to embroidery — all in support of Palestine. Bring a tote bag or t-shirt to screenprint or embroider — we’ll provide materials, guidance, and our @refashionizedproject how-to video to help you stitch something personal.
Participation in the upcycling activity is donation-based (20€-50€), with all proceeds going to support Palestinian families arriving in Florence.

The independent spaces taking part in the 3rd edition of Aprto are: Atelier Arianna Moroder @ariannamoroder, @kinkaleri_spaziok, @dryphoto_artecontemporanea, @chorasis.lospaziodellavisione, @fondazioneitalobolano, @sc17_studiocorte_17

With the support of the Municipality of Prato.

Malgorzata Maria Olchowska, cover for “werk, bauen + wohnen”, 2024.

Małgorzata Olchowska is an architect and print maker with an artistic practice that explores the boundaries of architecture. Known for her conceptual approach to drawings, sketches, and collages, she uses printmaking as a medium to tell stories about architecture, adding a tactile dimension to the visual language of the built environment, where themes of memory and displacement become central.
The relationship between print making and architecture is a recurring theme in Olchowska’s practice, in which the two disciplines are considered equivalent: “Both stem from a love of craftsmanship, in which the design process is central.”

During her one month residency at Lottozero (7–31 July), she will explore how textile can be incorporated into her practice, experimenting with digital jacquard weaving, tufting, felting, and silkscreen printing.

Olchowska studied architecture and urban planning in Poland, the United Kingdom, and at TU Delft in the Netherlands. After graduating, she worked as an architect at the firms De Vylder Vinck Taillieu, Murmuur, and Bovenbouw. Since 2016, she has been associated with various academic institutions, including the University of Ghent and the Rotterdam Academy of Bouwkunst. Olchowska’s work is regularly presented in exhibitions, conceived as opportunities to experiment with scenography—often in collaboration with Atelier Oh.

In 2023, her first monographic book, Waiting Rooms of Architecture, was published by the Flemish Architecture Institute.

Marina Contro is a hand weaver and artist based in San Francisco. Her work employs traditional weaving techniques and natural materials to explore the overlap between objects of use and objects of thought. Through weaving, she explores a space where function and meaning become inseparable.

During her two-week residency at Lottozero (June 23 – July 6), Marina is conducting material research by sourcing diverse yarns from the district and weaving samples to explore their tactile and structural qualities.

Marina Contro received an MFA in Fiber from Cranbrook Academy of Art (2017) and a BA in Religious Studies from University of Colorado Boulder (2009). She has taught at California College of the Arts and School of the Art Institute of Chicago and held residencies at Castello di Potentino, Andrea Zittel's A-Z West, Fondazione Arte della Seta Lisio, and Marshfield School of Weaving.

Draba II, 2026, seven of eight hand-woven cotton towels, day 32 of use, one’s gone missing.

Michaëlle Sergile, Lè m sot Ayiti, 2024, single weft jacquard weaving, cotton threads, wooden stands, sound piece.
Photo Credits : Simon Belleau, Darling Foundry

Interested in the rewriting of history through weaving, Michaëlle Sergile mainly reworks texts and books on postcolonial theories.
She questions the relationship between the writings of authors such as Frantz Fanon, Mayotte Capécia and Félix Mnthali, the place that the black woman occupies in these postcolonial narratives and cultural identity as well as the notion of the "foreigner" through mediums such as photography, sculpture, moving image and sound.

The vocabulary of weaving is closely linked to questions of identity. When threads are woven together to form intersections, they are, in a way, discourses that take place. At times, they reflect a cultural melting pot, where the fabric becomes a cross between different cultures. At others, these threads reflect the intersections of intersectional thinking.

Michaëlle Sergile, (born 1995 in Chicago; lives and works in Montreal, CA) holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from UQÀM (2018) and a Master of Fine Arts from Concordia University (2023).
Her work has been exhibited at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Musée d'art de Joliette, and the Dakar Off Biennale.

Joanna Czekajlo is a textile artist and designer whose work engages critically with material practices and questions of sustainability within the textile field. With a background in design and fine arts (Kunsthochschule Weißensee Berlin and Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam), she is currently completing her master’s degree at Kunstuniversität Linz.

During her studies, Joanna developed a growing interest in working with existing materials, such as leftover yarns, fabric scraps, selvedges, and other discarded textiles, prioritizing these over newly produced resources. She embraces the irregularities, textures, and inherent forms of such materials, integrating them into her process as intentional design elements. Her practice is increasingly shaped by a deeper investigation into the ecological and social dimensions of textile production.

Joanna’s current project is the development of a material bank, a platform that collects, maps, and categorizes byproducts from various stages of textile manufacturing. The goal is to build an accessible resource infrastructure for designers and artists, making high-quality surplus materials available that would otherwise be discarded.

During her residency at Lottozero (9-22 June), Joanna is researching circular practices within Prato’s textile district. As part of this process, she is also experimenting with production remnants to create material samples that highlight their creative and functional potential, contributing to an evolving aesthetic rooted in resourcefulness and the richness of re-use.

June 13th, 3pm-6pm: WEAVING ³ - 3D WEAVING WORKSHOP

We keep on exploring the sculptural potential of soft materials and textiles through hands-on experimentation and three-dimensional techniques. This activity, led by German designer Frederik T. Joachim, contributes to our ongoing Soft Sculpture program, focusing on the creative reuse of textile waste and alternative approaches to making.

The workshop invites participants to create three-dimensional textile modules using a loom designed and self-built by Frederik T. Joachim. Inspired by patchwork techniques, the process encourages experimentation and explores how discarded textiles can be transformed into new, creative, and sustainable material applications.

No previous knowledge is required. The workshop will be held in English.
Price: €30 -maximum 5 participants

Register here!

We are excited to present “Every Month I Weave”, solo exhibition by Dutch artist Liselore Frowijn, developed during her one-month residency at Lottozero in October 2024 and marking the second chapter of our Soft Sculpture Biennial exhibition program.

Frowijn’s project takes inspiration from the life of Margherita Datini, the wife of 14th-century Prato textile merchant Francesco Datini. Through a rich body of work that includes soft sculptures and jacquard fabrics, the artist highlights the historically neglected role of women in sustaining the fabric of social, economic, and domestic life.

Drawing on the thought of Italian feminist philosopher Silvia Federici, the exhibition critically examines the concept of carriership and the exploitation of the female body within Western neoliberal systems. From childbirth to domestic work and the invisible labor that sustains communities, women have historically borne the weight of essential yet undervalued roles.

Opening: 28th May, 18.30h
29.05.2025 - 27.07.2025
Mon-Fri 10.00-18.00 / Sat and Sun by appointment

Textile Sculpture and Body Politics. Workshop with Liselore Frowijn
29.05.2025, h 10:00-13:00

Thursday, the 29th of May, on the occasion of her upcoming exhibition at Lottozero, Amsterdam-based artist Liselore Frowijn will lead a hands-on workshop exploring fabric as a tool for expression, resistance, and transformation.

Frowijn’s research blends transdisciplinary and ecofeminist approaches, using textiles as acts of revolt and disguise. In this session, she will guide participants through a process combining sewing, collage, and sculpture, inspired by the work of Louise Bourgeois.

Participants are invited to bring fabrics related to their personal/domestic experience to be used in the activity.
No previous knowledge is required.
The workshop will be held in English and is open to a maximum of 8 participants.
Reserve your spot here.

Thursday, 29 May 2025, h 10:00-13:00

Soft Sculpture is an interdisciplinary project dedicated to investigating the expressive and conceptual possibilities of sculpture through soft materials such as fibres and fabrics.
The programme combines exhibitions by artists of different nationalities and generations, supporting the research and training of young artists, and workshops on three-dimensional textile techniques, confirming the vocation of the space to be a place of experimentation and production.

If from the the 1960s and 1970s, sculpture opened up to unconventional materials organic and ‘soft’, it remains tied to the idea of solidity and permanence. Soft Sculpture investigates the use of textiles and fibres not only as a material choice, but as a practice that expands the the boundaries of sculpture, expanding its plasticity and relationship to space. With an interdisciplinary approach, the programme touches on different themes, reflecting theversatility of textiles in the contemporary art scene.

The programme runs over the bienary 2025/2026 and is co-funded by Toscanaincontemporanea 2025.

EXHIBITION

Panneggi, solo exhibition by Chiara Bettazzi
Finissage: 23rd   May, h 17:00-23:00
20.03 – 23.05.2025

Every Month I Weave, solo exhibition by Liselore Frowijn
Opening: 28th May, h 18.30
29.05 – 27.07.2025

What Lies Behind the Boundaries?, solo exhibition by Barbara Prenka
October 2025 – Juanuary 2026

Solo exhibition by Daniela De Lorenzo
February-April 2026

WORKSHOP

3D Modelling Workshop with Blender, with Margaux Minodier
16th May, h 15:00-18:00

Textile Sculpture and Body Politics, with Liselore Frowijn
29th May, h 10:00-13:00

Weaving ³ - 3D Weaving Workshop, with Frederick Thomas Joachim
13th June, h 15:00-18:00

Felt process, materiality and plasticity, curated by Lottozero
4th July, h 15:00-18:00

RESIDENCIES

Rosa Lützen (Denmark)
5-11.05-2025

Barbara Prenka (Kosovo/Italy)
7-20.07 / 1-14.09.2025

Claudia Catarzi (Italy)
September-October 2025

Amy Usdin (Minnesota, USA)
29.09 – 19.10.2025

Amelia Skelton (Australia)
17.11-14.12.2025

Gloria Sogl, Digital Tenderness, 2024–2025, iron frame, handwoven textiles produced on a hand-operated digital TC2 Jacquard loom and machine-produced textiles on a fully automated Jacquard loom; made of cotton, virgin wool, and acrylic yarn.
@Photos: Michael Mönnich

Gloria Sogl (b. 1994, Munich, Germany) is an art educator and visual artist, working across various mediums such as installations, performance, text, and textiles. Central to Gloria’s practice is the art of weaving, which serves as a conceptual foundation and inspiration for much of her work and research. Through her work, Gloria delves into the contemporary landscape of art-making, forging deep connections with materials and intertwining narratives of textile traditions and automated production in the digital era.

Gloria’s exploration of the loom, a hyper-industrial machine with colonial roots, expands on traditional approaches, questioning the loom as a “timeless” machine amidst anti-modern processes. In this expansion, she strives for a method of unlearning and relearning, of writing and erasing, weaving and unraveling. By treating weaving as a counter-cultural technology, she explores its potential as an aesthetic detour with uncertain outcomes, aiming to further fray and redefine textile forms.

During her 2-week residency at Lottozero (May 12–25, 2025), Gloria will develop a new series of jacquard-woven pieces that explore blurred perception, digital manipulation, and embodied knowledge.

Gloria studied Fine Arts and Pedagogy in Munich and Nuremberg and graduated from Dutch Art Institute (DAI) in 2024.

May 16th, 3pm-6pm: BASIC 3D MODELLING WORKSHOP WITH MARGAUX MINODIER

We are launching a 3-hour workshop taught by Margaux Minodier; a beginner's introduction to Blender, the free and open-source 3D modeling software.

Participants will master the basics of creating custom 3D images and videos. They will be able to start by exploring the main tools: working with shapes (meshes) and navigating 3D space while setting up environments and adding materials.

They will try a fabric simulation to create a ghostly tablecloth, followed by a short session using the sculpting tool to model fabric-like surfaces.

At the end, they will learn how to export their work so they can transfer their virtual soft sculptures to any platform!

No prior 3D modeling skills are required.

Please bring your own computer equipped with a mouse.

The workshop costs 20€, maximum 10 participants

Register here!

On Friday May 23rd 2025 from 17:00 to 23:00, Lottozero hosts The ReFASHIONized EXCHANGE: a Global Fashion Exchange clothing swap event with DJ set by Claudio Capitoni.

The event is aimed at promoting the Lottozero Refashionized – Fashion Evolution towards Sustainability project whichis coming to an end after 2 years and which has allowed us to create multiple FREE ressources for fashion lovers which you can find on our website:

The event will also mark the final celebration of the exhibition Panneggi by Chiara Bettazzi.

How does a SWAP party work? To join the swap, guests are asked to contribute up to 10 items with a suggested retail value of 10 Euros or more. For each item contributed guests will receive tickets that can be used to exchange for items that are new to them. Items can be dropped off at Lottozero during opening hours from 9:30 – 18:00 starting the 8th of May 2024 or brought directly to the event. 

Find all infos and book your slot on Eventbrite.

Time & Location

May 23rd, 2025, 17:00 – 23:00

Lottozero, Via Arno 10, 59100 Prato Italy

Join us this Saturday, May 10 at 11:00 AM for a special morning dedicated to the work of Chiara Bettazzi, on the occasion of her solo show “Panneggi” at our Kunsthalle.

We’ll begin with a visit to her studio at Corte 17, located in the former industrial complex of the ex-Lanificio Bini in Prato. Originally her personal workspace, the studio has evolved into a collaborative project devoted to experimental artistic practices and the exploration of Prato’s industrial landscape.
This visit offers a unique opportunity to delve into Bettazzi’s artistic research, characterized by her use of everyday objects, which take form in site-specific installations and ephemeral assemblages, often captured through photography—with a constant reflection on memory, time, and the relationship between organic and inorganic matter.

The visit will conclude with a guided tour of the exhibition Panneggi at Lottozero, led by curator Alessandra Tempesti.

Meeting point: Saturday, May 10 at 11:00 AM at Studio Corte 17 (enter the courtyard through the arch).
Info: Alessandra / tel +39 348 8137701

Photo: Toast Studio

Luis Weber

Luis Weber is a German artist based in Amsterdam. He studied Textile and Fine Art at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. Drawing inspiration from daily life, he converts collected content—photographs, sketches, fragments—into various materials: a scenario becomes a photograph, which becomes a coded file, and then is crafted into a weaving, an embroidery, or a print. This process examines how information evolves and shifts through medium and repetition.
His work creates a material space between the fast, impulsive, and gestural nature of sketching and scribbling, and the slow, tactile process of textile-making. In weaving, this duality becomes particularly evident, as the intuitive act of drawing meets the mathematical and rational structure of textile design.

Weber is currently undertaking a two-week residency at Lottozero (28 April – 11 May), where he is developing a new series of works on the TC2 jacquard loom and experimenting with digital embroidery techniques in the lab.

Fast fashion has a huge impact on our planet—but your wardrobe can be part of the solution!
This free 3-session workshop at Lottozero offers practical tools and creative inspiration to help you build a more mindful and sustainable relationship with your clothes.
Participants must attend all three sessions, for a total of 18 hours:

Creative Mending, with Ginevra Consoli: learn techniques to repair and care for your clothes, extending their life and reducing textile waste.
Friday, May 23 – 10:00–13:00 / 14:00–17:00

Armocromia, with Maria Michela Mattei: learn how to choose the colors that best enhance your natural tones, helping you make more thoughtful wardrobe decisions.
Friday, June 6 – 10:00–13:00 / 14:00–17:00

Creative Styling, with Maria Virginia Benvenuti: discover how to create coherent and personal looks using what you already own, reducing the need for new purchases.
Friday, June 20 – 10:00–13:00 / 14:00–17:00

This initiative is part of the attivaMENTE project, a lifelong learning program funded by PR FSE+ Tuscany 2021–2027, and coordinated by Sistema Bibliotecario Provinciale Pratese.
The workshop is in Italian and is open exclusively to individuals who are residents or domiciled in Tuscany.

Location: Lottozero, Via Arno 10 Prato
Registrations open till May 09 at this link
Download the brochure of the workshop