Thomias Radin

Martinican artist Thomias Radin is the winner of the 4th edition of the Oelle Prize – Ancient Mediterranean. In spring 2026, he will be in residence in Sicily, where he will develop a new project dedicated to the Mediterranean as a space for encounter and cross-fertilization, which will subsequently be presented in an exhibition dedicated to him. The Prize, dedicated to the most innovative contemporary languages ​​– from photography to video, from sound art to installation, from writing to performance – aims to be a space for reflection and experimentation on the Mediterranean, understood not only as a geographical location, but as a symbolic horizon of encounter, migration, cross-fertilization, and exchange. The international jury, composed of Caterina Riva, Director of the MACTE Museum in Termoli, Alberto Salvadori, Director and founder of the ICA Foundation in Milan, and Andrea Viliani, Director of the MUCIV – Museo delle Civiltà in Rome, selected Thomias Radin for the depth of his artistic research, which combines the corporeal and performative dimension with a reflection on memory, identity, and postcolonial dynamics. Born in 1993 in Martinique and working between Berlin and Paris, Radin explores the cultural and historical stratifications that permeate bodies, gestures, and territories. Through performances, installations, and visual practices that combine dance, sound, and sculpture, the artist interrogates the relationship between presence and absence, belonging and migration, proposing a poetic and political vision of the Mediterranean as a space in constant motion. As per the Prize format, Thomias Radin will be hosted in residence in Sicily during the spring of 2026, for a period to be defined in agreement with the artist. With Thomias Radin's victory, the Oelle Prize – Ancient Mediterranean confirms its vocation as a laboratory of ideas and connections, a project that supports the "navigating artists" of the third millennium and promotes a vision of the Mediterranean as a crossroads of cultures, identities, and experimentation. The Oelle Foundation thus renews its commitment to promoting contemporary artistic research as a tool for knowledge and a bridge between the different shores of the world.