As part of September Sessions and the opening day of The Owl of Minerva, the exhibition is activated by Stina Fors’ performance Answer Me, Pythia.

Was the oracle the first ventriloquist? Was the Nutcracker the first ventriloquist dummy — or merely a mouth waiting for a voice? Ventriloquism has been described as divine, demonic and comical — depending on who is listening. Answer Me, Pythia continues this tradition. 

Taking the ventriloquist character Sylvia as her starting point, Stina Fors explores the voice as something displaced, rhythmic, and material. Answer Me, Pythia is Fors’ ongoing work with ventriloquism as an artistic practice — a series of live situations in which each encounter delves deeper into the genealogy of the tradition. In preparation for Accelerator’s exhibition The Owl of Minerva, the work focuses on the ventriloquist dummy as an instrument: rhythm, voice and mechanics rather than character. A jaw that claps, teeth that bite, not a tool for language but for sound and voice that refuse to stay where they belong. The performance explores the relationship between body and object, between different voices, and what happens when the voice no longer naturally belongs to the body we believe it comes from.

Saturday, 12 September
Location: In the exhibition The Owl of Minerva
Time: 14:00–15:00
Free entry; no registration required

On the same day, between 12:00 and 14:00, Öberg/Arvefjord presents their performance WonderWaves. Find out more

About the artist

Stina Fors

Stina Fors (b. 1989, Sweden) is a performance artist, choreographer, and experimental vocalist whose practice centres on the voice — its power, its failures, and everything that slips between the two. Working through solo and durational performance, she uses voice, rhythm, and embodiment to explore what happens when speech exceeds intention: as pressure, excess, noise, or unexpected revelation.

Her performances are humorous, raw, and risky — built on improvisation, punk energy, and agenuine appetite for the unpredictable. Key works include A Mouthful of Tongues (ventriloquism, vocal distortion), Stina Force (live drumming and vocal improvisation), and Answer Me, Pythia (a durational encounter with oracles, uncertainty, and belief). She has presented work internationally, including at the Venice Biennale and the Gwangju Biennale, and is the recipient of the H13 Lower Austria Prize for Performance. She studied at the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) in Amsterdam. Stina Fors is based in Vienna.

About September Sessions

September Sessions is a four-day art festival in Stockholm, initiated in 2023 by Index – The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation and Mint. While celebrating the diversity of Stockholm’s art scene, September Sessions also serves as a platform for independent curators. Each edition features a specially curated program by an invited curator, temporarily activating the city through projects presented at unique locations.