Award ceremony: Fri, 21.11.2025
Duration: Sat, 22.11.– Sat, 06.12.2025
Curator: Frederike Sperling
The H13 Lower Austria Prize for Performance 2025 has been awarded to choreographer and performance artist Stina Fors. The members of the H13 jury 2025, Dot Zhihan Jia, Carolina Nöbauer, and Frederike Sperling, write about her project Answer me, Pythia:
"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."
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. Throughout this period, you can encounter Pythia, channeled by Stina Fors, during our regular opening hours. The performance will commence on the occasion of the festive H13 award ceremony on Friday, 21.11.2025, from 7pm at Kunstraum Niederoesterreich. Join us! As always, the events are free of charge, no prior registration is required.
As in the past two years, the Kunstraum will once again award the prize in cooperation with an internationally renowned partner institution – this time our partner is Studio Voltaire in London. 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.
→ further information on the H13 Lower Austria Prize for Performance