FEDERICA PATERA AND ANDREA SBRA PEREGO: WINNERS OF THE 2025 MOTHERSHIP NYC RESIDENCY AWARD

Federica Patera and Andrea Sbra Perego, Italian artists known for their shared visual and textual practice, have recently been selected as the winners of the 2025 Residency Award from Mothership NYC, one of the most vibrant independent spaces on the Brooklyn art scene. The duo, originally from Bergamo and recently relocated to New York, work by weaving fabrics and words together, creating hybrid works in which language and material merge into installations, sculptures, and multimedia performances.

The official announcement was published on Mothership’s website. Since 2014, the space has welcomed artists from around the world aboard its Ship-That-Does-Not-Sail, a former industrial factory in the heart of Greenpoint that has been transformed into a creative hub. Patera & Perego’s project was selected by an international jury of artists and curators and stood out for its multidisciplinary approach and conceptual depth, rooted in a vision of translation not just as a passage between languages, but as a tool for navigating different realities and building shared narratives.

The collaboration between the duo and Mothership has already begun enthusiastically, giving rise to several initiatives. During the recent edition of Greenpoint Open Studios, Patera & Perego opened their residency space to the public, presenting a selection of recent works. In that same context, a site-specific live video set was projected onto the façade of Mothership’s “Main Deck.” The live piece, developed in dialogue with a curated sound selection by Piero Acuto—composed of original tracks and selected pieces—unfolds in real time: layered, rhythmic, and immersive, it transforms the building’s architecture into a luminous surface where image and sound merge with the urban environment.

The duo’s New York journey will continue in July with their participation in the group exhibition Pick a Card, Any Card, organized by Mothership NYC and curated by Cristina Pizzuto, an artist and curator also currently in residence. The exhibition will be held at Art Gotham’s East Village location and will feature the work of 22 international artists, all former Mothership residents, united by an experimental and cross-disciplinary approach to contemporary visual languages.

Patera & Perego’s work inhabits a threshold between word and image, presence and absence, body and voice. The ancient technique of thread-wrapping, used to weave letters onto reclaimed fabrics, becomes a tool for sculpting language into material and giving form to the invisible. Their works engage with the etymological roots of words, the mythologies of creation, and the possibilities of writing as a physical, poetic, and political act.

Since 2021, the two artists have also been developing the curatorial project DRIM | Contemporary Art Ground, an independent platform founded in Italy and currently being relaunched in New York. DRIM promotes emerging artistic practices through exhibitions, events, and collaborations.

Didascalie:

• Artwork Title: The Swan. Materials: Fabric made from regenerated nylon thread sourced from pre- and post-consumer waste, metal wire. Dimensions: 70 x 141 x 2 in. Year: 2024

• Artwork Title: Coral #5. Materials: Upcycled terry cotton, metal wire. Dimensions: 42 x 40 x 4 in. Year: 2025

• Artwork Title: Coral #6. Materials: Upcycled terry cotton, metal wire. Dimensions: 69 x 69 x 6  in. Year: 2025

• Portraits

• Video Live Set on the Main Deck