Selection Committee
For each edition of the Prize, the Paul Thorel Foundation invites an independent committee of curators and museum directors to select twelve artists, who are then asked to develop an original project. The selection committee subsequently meets in Naples with the members of the jury to select the winners. Starting with the fourth edition, half of the selected artists come from the international art scene. The selection committee therefore included, representing the Italian art scene, Domenico Quaranta (independent curator and lecturer at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, Milan) and Andrea Baccin and Ilaria Marotta (founders of CURA.); and, representing the international art scene, Valentina Ravaglia (curator at Tate Modern, London) and Nadim Samman (Director of the Autotelic Foundation, London, and curator at the Langen Foundation, Düsseldorf).
Jury
The jury of the fourth edition of the Paul Thorel Prize included the members of the selection committee – Domenico Quaranta, Andrea Baccin, Ilaria Marotta, Valentina Ravaglia, and Nadim Samman – together with Sara Dolfi Agostini (curator at the Paul Thorel Foundation).
Winners
The winners of the fourth edition of the Paul Thorel Prize are S()fia Braga (born in Parma in 1991; lives and works in Vienna) and Jakub Jansa (born in Vyškov in 1989; lives and works in Prague).
S()fia Braga was born in Parma, and lives in Vienna. She is a transmedia artist exploring cinema and artificial intelligence. Her research examines new technologies and how digital platforms influence life, imagining possible futures between the human and the non-human. She received the AI in Art Award from the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts and Culture (2024) and the Kunstförderpreis der Stadt Linz (2022), and her work has been presented at the Ars Electronica Festival (2023–24), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (2024), Vienna Digital Cultures (2025), and Camera Austria (2026).
Jakub Jansa was born in Vyškov, Czech Republic, and lives in Prague. In his work he creates imaginative installations that merge cinema and performance to highlight the fragile nature of the social systems we live in, and the ideologies that shape them. In his work, he intertwines fiction, humor, and elements of the grotesque, crafting visually compelling narratives with strong critical impact. He has shown his work at the 6th Athens Biennale (2018), Pioneer Works in New York (2018), HEK in Basel (2020), Anthology Film Archives in New York (2023), and represents the Czech Republic at the 61st Venice Biennale (2026).
Exhibition
The Paul Thorel Foundation is organising two solo exhibitions, one for each winning artist of the fourth edition of the Paul Thorel Prize, at its premises in Naples, curated by Sara Dolfi Agostini. The exhibition by S()fia Braga is scheduled for November 2026, while the exhibition by Jakub Jansa is scheduled for January 2027.
Artist Books
In 2027, the Paul Thorel Foundation will publish two artist books in the dedicated series by publishing house Nero Editions, one for each winning artist.
