H13 Lower Austria Prize for Performance 2025

This year's H13 prizewinner has been announced. The H13 Lower Austria Prize for Performance 2025 has been awarded to choreographer and performance artist Stina Fors. Out of the 73 applications reviewed by the H13 jury this year, Fors’ project Answer Me, Pythia stood out among the other entries. In their statement, jury members Dot Zhihan Jia, Carolina Nöbauer and Frederike Sperling said:

"In her two-week performance Answer me, Pythia, performance artist and choreographer Stina Fors transforms Kunstraum Niederoesterreich into the Oracle of Delphi. Like the ancient custom in the temple of prophecy, each day visitors can encounter the priestess Pythia, who shall now be summoned by Fors. As legend goes, Pythia announces her prophecies in a drunken state of ecstasy, giving her advice in unpredictable forms of expression and with ample space for interpretation. With a penchant for the absurd and untamed, Fors articulates a contemporary commentary on the post-truth era in this award-winning project: in a world where claims to truth are predicated on emotions and convictions, the artist urges her audience to resort to their own critical faculties. She encourages them to question themselves and each other, even though or precisely because they themselves – and art – do not always have straightforward answers. Wielding methods such as ventriloquism, various vocal techniques, spontaneity, and interaction, Fors’s Answer me, Pythia represents an uncompromising commitment to the live moment and the immediate encounters performative art enables."

The ambition of the H13 Prize is to showcase the variety of contemporary performance – in Austria and beyond. This year, Kunstraum Niederoesterreich is once again awarding the prize together with a renowned international partner institution: the Studio Voltaire in London. Studio Voltaire is one of the UK’s leading not-for-profit arts and education organizations. Championing emerging and under-represented artists, it commissions and produces exhibitions, collaborative projects, artist development programs, live events and offsite projects.

In addition to the prize money, Fors may look forward to a residency at Studio Voltaire which offers a wide range of opportunities for creative exchange and professional development.

Fors' performance of Answer Me, Pythia will run for the entire duration of this year's H13 program, from Saturday, 22.11. to Saturday, 06.12.2025. At the opening, Fors will present a lecture performance, as part of the festive H13 award ceremony on Friday, 21.11.2025 at Kunstraum Niederoesterreich.

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Stina Fors (b. 1989, SE) is a performance artist, drummer, and choreographer with a taste for the absurd and strange. She creates solo works that move between dance, theater, and music – infused with tension, humor, and raw energy.

Fors often treats her works as one evolving piece, reworking material to fit each context – like, most recently, at the Cremona Art Week 2025 in Italy, where she merged three works into a site-specific performance. Another example is her one-woman punk band Stina Force, in which she combines drumming and singing in spontaneous, nerve-seeking performances. 

Her works have been presented at the Venice Biennale, the Gwangju Biennale, Tanzquartier Wien, brut Wien, Wiener Festwochen, La Ménagerie de Verre in Paris, Short Theater in Rome, Centrale Fies in Trentino, MDT Moderna Dansteatern in Stockholm, Inkonst in Malmö, La Casa Encendida in Madrid, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo in Móstoles, STUK Leuven and Campo in Ghent, among others. Fors holds a degree in choreography from the SNDO – School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam.