While preparing for the Open Studios appointment with the Villa Romana Fellows 2024, we are delighted to announce the winners of the Villa Romana Prize 2025. The Villa Romana Prize has been awarded by the German non-profit Villa Romana Association since 1905 and comes with a ten-month residency at the Florentine artists’ house, prize money, and a final publication. The four selected artists for 2025 are Sajan Vazhakaparambil Kolavan Kalyanikutty Mani, Elia Nurvista, Chaveli Sifre, and Raul Walch.
Villa Romana e.V. would like to thank the jurors for their decision. For the second consecutive year, we introduce a two-step process to come to our decision: (1) Six nominators were invited to recommend artists to be considered for the Villa Romana Prize 2025. These were: Zasha Colah, Eli Cortiñas, Petrit Halilaj and Alvaro Urbano, Anne Duk Hee Jordan, Andrea Lissoni, and Joanna Warsza. (2) Jurors Barbara Casavecchia and Rajkamal Kahlon discussed the recommendations and came to a unanimous decision.
Sajan Vazhakaparambil Kolavan Kalyanikutty Mani, aka Sajan Mani (b. 1981 in Kunnoth, Kannur) is an interdisciplinary artist and curator from a family of rubber tappers in northern Keralam, South India. His work addresses issues of marginalised and oppressed peoples in India through the “Black Dalit body.” Mani’s performances emphasise embodied presence, confronting pain, shame, fear, and power, using his body as a socio-political metaphor. His art often incorporates water to explore ecological issues related to Kerala’s backwaters and the theme of migration. Recent works examine the relationship between animals and humans and the politics of space from an indigenous cosmological perspective.
Elia Nurvista (b. 1983 in Yogyakarta) uses an interdisciplinary approach to explore food politics, examining power, social, and economic inequality through various art mediums like workshops, study groups, publications, site-specific performances, videos, and installations. She addresses wider issues such as ecology, gender, class, and geopolitics. In 2015, she founded Bakudapan, a food study group with members from diverse backgrounds, focusing on research at the intersection of art, pedagogy, and activism. Nurvista is also part of Struggles for Sovereignty, a platform promoting solidarity on land, water, farming, and food, aiming to support the right to self-determination over essential resources for individuals and communities.
Chaveli Sifre (b. 1987 in Würzburg) is an artist whose research focuses on cultural healing traditions, the sense of smell, botany, and their complex belief systems. Her interdisciplinary practice emphasises intersensorial entanglement as a form of knowledge production. She creates installations, scents, paintings, and performative rituals to recover intersections between science, spirituality, the senses, healing practices, and care. Central to her practice is engaging with cultural healing traditions, belief systems, and sensory perception. Through constellating these interests, she produces installations, immersive performances, experimental pedagogy, sculptures, and olfactory-driven works.
Raul Walch (b.1980 in Frankfurt am Main) is a visual artist, who often engages with public spaces, activating existing structures and deviating from traditional exhibition methods. As a sculptor and conceptual artist, he also takes on roles as a performer and researcher, aiming to shape and intervene in reality. Beyond international exhibitions, Walch participates in collective projects like the Floating University and organises exhibitions with TARKIB - Contemporary Art Institute in Baghdad and in Berlin with the project Owned by Others.
The collaboration between Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz—Max-Planck-Institut and Villa Romana will continue in its sixth year in 2025. Villa Romana e.V. would like to thank the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz—Max-Planck-Institut for this continued support.
The Villa Romana Prize is the oldest German art prize. Since its inception in 1905 the history of the Villa Romana Prize has been connected with renowned artists.
The patron of the Villa Romana and founder of the Villa Romana Prize is the registered non-profit association Villa Romana e.V.
The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) is a main sponsor of Villa Romana since 2021. Further support comes from Deutsche Bank Foundation and BAO Foundation among others.
