We are pleased to share several recent developments from Refashionized–Fashion Evolution towardsSustainability, as the project concludes its final phase of activities.

This September, students, educators, and young creatives took part in both in-person and online sessions designed to test the full range of Refashionized learning tools. Participants explored digital resources—including an online course, glossary, portfolio guide, and mobile game—before diving into hands-on upcycling workshops in our textile lab. Through techniques such as embroidery, needle punching, and patch appliqué, they gained skills while also reflecting on the challenges young people face in adopting more sustainable fashion practices (read more here).

With the project now reaching completion, we are proud to present a comprehensive set of free educational resources that are openly accessible to schools, youth workers, creative hubs, and learners worldwide. These include a structured online course on fashion history and sustainability, an interactive game, a portfolio development guide, a glossary of key sustainability terms, and a series of step-by-step video tutorials for textile reuse (read more here).

Recent project updates also highlight the training activities carried out across partner countries. Youth workers engaged in sessions focused on fashion history, sustainability principles, and practical upcycling approaches, and later gathered in Prato to exchange methods and refine the project’s educational materials. Developments on the digital learning tools—such as the online course and sustainable fashion game—were also shared, emphasizing their role in making complex sustainability topics more accessible and engaging for young learners (read more here).

We look forward to seeing how these tools will continue to inspire creativity, awareness, and sustainable practices within communities across Europe and beyond.

This Saturday, we’re opening the doors of our textile lab for a full afternoon of discovery, creativity, and connection. It's one of our favorite moments of the year — a chance to share what we’ve been working on, welcome new faces, and celebrate the vibrant community that grows around textile art and design.

Come wander through our space, chat with the people who bring it to life, and get a closer look at the tools, materials, and ideas that shape our practice. From ongoing research and experiments to personal projects and collaborative processes, you'll get an inside view of what happens at Lottozero every day.

Whether you're familiar with Lottozero or discovering it for the first time, we’d love to welcome you in. Come by, say hi, and get inspired.

Free Entry

14.00-20.00

Via Arno, 10 Prato

From Saturday September 6th to Monday September 8th you can meet us at Who’s Next , where Lottozero Studio is featured in the Creative Hub section, dedicated to services and innovation and curated by

For this occasion we‘ll showcase a broad spectrum of our work: textile developments made for our consultancy clients, selected products from the Prato textile district, and a collection of unique samples created in the Lottozero lab by international designers and artists. The presentation will highlight the diversity of approaches and the innovative use of materials that guide our practice and our collaborations.

We are looking forward to sharing our research and projects in Paris, and to opening up new conversations with brands, designers, and makers interested in textile experimentation. If you would like to learn more about our services and discover our latest work, come and meet us there!

We are thrilled to announce that in one month we will join BAW - Bolzano Art Weeks, for the fifth time in a raw, as a partner of the initiative. This year we will present “What Lies Behind the Boundaries of a Shadow?”, a new project by Barbara Prenka, developed during her residency at Lottozero, which is currently still going on.

Within the frame of this year theme - Remapping LAND/marks - Barbara Prenka’s site specific installation inhabit an empty area of the Bolazo train station with her hand sewn and embroidered blankets: hybrid objects between painting and soft sculpture, symbols of care and witnesses to conflict and social marginalisation. Through the act of covering and shaping, the blankets reinterpret space and make emptiness tangible, reactivating the memory of places.

Presentation: 08.10 h. 17.00
Opening times: 03.10-11.10 Mo-Sa: 15.00-19.00
Ex-Restaurant Bolzano train Station, Piazza della Stazione 1

Zoey Yang is a London-based Canadian-Chinese artist. Primarily working with sculptures and drawings, her works are presented as either records of actions or objects to be performed with, a process of reimagining female lived experiences in alternative narratives. Her work navigates the tension of metaphorical division between the inside and the outside (of bodies, spaces, containments, and others), troubling the seemingly definitive duality of appearances and expectations. Current focus introspects the origins of guilt and its internal relation to external morality prescriptions, traversing between religious teachings and moral guidelines implemented in largely secular societies.

Yang is a current MFA candidate at Goldsmiths University and holds a BASc in Cognitive Science and Art History from McGill University. 

Zoey Yang, Fledging, durational performance. Fledging activates the second stage of Nestling, 2024, mild steel, hand-dyed cotton and wool yarn, hand-dyed silk, chicken wire.

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.