We are exited to launch the TECOFASH Online Cooperative Platform.

Together with our partners we've worked tirelessly to bring you a FREE, easily ACCESSIBLE (no registration required) platform that includes an exhaustive course list, real-world applications, case studies, exercises and interactive sessions.

Whether you're a fashion newbie, a job seeker aiming for a sustainable edge, or an entrepreneur eyeing to revolutionize your business, our platform caters to all.

And did we mention it is 100% FREE? Read the full Tecofash newsletter here.

Lottozero is participating in the 3rd edition of Green Factory, exhibiting a performative work by Hannes Egger, following its launch during BAW - Bolzano Art Weeks last October.

“Second Skin” is a performative device which has been conceived and developed by Hannes Egger after a residency at Lottozero and a series of tours into the Prato textile district. The work opens up a broader reflection on the vintage market, directing the gaze to the second-hand garment as a trace and vector of existences. 

Green Factory is a festival dedicated to promoting the culture of sustainability. A creative agora in which to confront and approach environmental issues. The Festival investigates through multidisciplinary events the 4Rs of the circular economy: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover.
At Tepidarium del Roster, Via Bolognese 17, Florence, 16-19 November 2023.

19 November - h 15.30: Talk “Second Skin / Second Hand”
Considerations around the dynamics of the vintage market. With Hannes Egger (artist), Simone Martini (The Vintage Store, Prato), Alessandra Tempesti (Lottozero's curator).

The event is free, registration required.
Check the full program here.

We are happy to announce that we are part of a new Erasmus project called Refashionized - Fashion Revolution towards sustainability !

We are working together with five EU-Partners: Jugend- & Kulturprojekt e.V. , Kainotomia & SIA EE , Catwalk Project , Cellock LTD , Politecnica de Valencia ) to support a sustainable future of fashion. Through this project we want to encourage young people to a sustainable approach to fashion usage and consumption ,  by offering them several different educational activities and tools about fashion culture, and upcycling. 

Keep up to date and follow the project on Refashionized social media: Facebook    , Instagram and TikTok .

We are looking forward to SEEING YOU THERE!

As we do every fall, Saturday October 21st, from 10:00 - 19:00 h we are opening up our headquarter in via Arno 10, for an OPEN DAY entirely dedicated to the laboratory and the textile techniques it offers. We will show you all the machinery and tools we have available and you will be able to try out needles, threads, colors and fabrics!

Access is free, SEE YOU THERE!

To start off September in the best way possible Lottozero was given the amazing opportunity to visit our fellow textile hub, Icelandic Textile Center.

Our lab manager Federica Valli spent one week in Blönduós, Iceland shadowing her Nordic counterpart Margrét Katrín Guttormsdóttir and her work, in order to get more familiar with the amazing digital tools that they have to bring some more knowledge back to Prato.

Now we can’t wait for Margrét to come visit us here in Italy!

We are grateful for the European Creative Hubs Network P2P learning program which made this exchange possible.

We are very excited to introduce Caroline Kipp, the guest curator we have selected to work with us on the fourth edition of Textile Culture Net:

Caroline Kipp is a curator, artist, and art historian. From 2019 to 2023, Kipp was the Curator of Contemporary Art at The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum in Washington, DC. Previously, she was the Curatorial Associate in the Department of Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston where she was responsible for the contemporary decorative arts collection.
She serves on the boards of the Textile Society of America (TSA) and the James Renwick Alliance for Craft (JRA).

Together with Bukola Oyebode (Nigeria/The Netherlands), Zoe Yeh (Taiwan), and Hilde Skancke Pedersen (Norway/ Sámi), who are the curators selected by the other TCN institutions, Caroline Kipp will curate Textile Culture Net's upcoming online exhibition programming, starting next October and published on our IG acoounts.
Follow us on our social media!

Textile Culture Net 2023/2024 is co-funded by the European Union.
Grant Agreement n°101099994

Lottozero is taking part in the 3rd edition of the Bolzano Art Weeks!

Bolzano Art Weeks is a collective event created with the aim of providing a space for South Tyrol's multifaceted contemporary art scene. BAW spreads across the city of Bolzano with the intention of engaging a wide and diverse audience in exhibition, performance, installation, multimedia and site-specific projects.

Lottozero will present “Second Skin” a performative device conceived and developed by artist Hannes Egger after a series of tours into the Prato textile district.

In collaboration with The Vintage Store, Prato.
With the support of the Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano Alto Adige.

At Palais Moiré, Piazza delle Erbe 9 - Bolzano
From 29.09 to 07.10
(Mo-Sa: 09.30-18.00)

Artist Talk on the 07.10: 17.00-19.00

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.