The Nunnery Gallery’s biennial festival of film and performance, Visions in the Nunnery, is set to return this autumn, presenting new work by artists Rosie Gibbens and Onyeka Igwe alongside contributions from 62 creators from 16 countries, including Nigeria, Argentina, Iran, Pakistan, and Ukraine.

Under the artistic leadership of Gibbens and Igwe, the festival emerges from an international open call that drew 737 submissions from 59 countries. It promises a vibrant, global dialogue on contemporary filmmaking and performance, running from October 4 to December 21, 2025, at the Nunnery Gallery in London’s Bow Arts.

Programme 1: Curated by Rosie Gibbens

Programme 1, curated by Rosie Gibbens and running from October 4 to November 9, features her new work alongside that of 38 other artists. Drawing on Gibbens’ interest in the absurd, the gallery will transform into a smorgasbord of recorded performing bodies—pushing limits, becoming technologically augmented, morphing into the more-than-human, or embracing the bizarre. The Nave space will evoke a Frankenstein-style lair, filled with animatronic corporeal sculptures and videos.

Building on the success of last year’s Absurd Visions event at Bow Arts’ Shaftesbury Avenue takeover during Frieze, Gibbens has curated a live performance evening for the opening night on Friday, October 3, from 6-9pm. Artists will deploy defiance, humour, clairvoyance, and crayons to pose pertinent questions about bodies, relationships, and systems through absurdity.

Gibbens, reflecting on her personal connection to the festival, said: “Visions is a programme that’s very close to my heart because it was one of the first opportunities I had to show work after graduating in 2018. It’s a nice moment for me to reflect! Selecting the work has been a real pleasure… I’m so pleased that Bow Arts is championing experimental video and performance work at a time where the ‘artworld’ seems to be playing it relatively safe. I hope the exhibition will be strange, surprising and emotive.”

Programme 1 exhibiting artists include: Nicholas Blaidd, Johanna Bolton, Greig Burgoyne, Jemima Burrill, Karen Byrne, Adam Cole, Colette Copeland, Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau, Annie Edwards, Iuliia Fedorova, Beth Fox, Rosie Gibbens, Eleanor Green, Katy Howe, Bryan Konefsky, Richie Moment, Seona Myerscough, Daniel Oliver, Savvas Papasavva, Rozina Pátkai, Alex Pearl, Gregor Petrikovič, Blue Phoenix, Alicia Radage, Nik Ramage, Tammy Reynolds, Emily Sarten, Korallia Stergides, Alexis Zelda Stevens, Xinyue Tao, Julieta Tetelbaum, Mariia Timoshenko, Mariya Vasilyeva, Ivy Vo, Frances Willoughby, Jake Wood, Iris Lingyu Zhang, and Yanzi Zou.

Performance evenings for Programme 1 feature: Julian Alexander, Rosemary Jane Cronin, Katie Houston, Chuting Lee, Laura Dee Milnes, Jennet Thomas and Tallulah Haddon in collaboration with Mirabelle Haddon, Kit Marshall, Joana Nastari, Claudia Palazzo and Dre Spisto, with sound design by Alina Maldonado.

Programme 2: Led by Onyeka Igwe

Programme 2, led by Onyeka Igwe from November 15 to December 21, will showcase her award-winning film the names have been changed, including my own and truths have been altered (2019). The film explores the story of her grandfather, the story of ‘the land,’ and an encounter with Nigeria from a single point in time and place. It throws the ordinary and everyday within the archive into relief by daring to write and re-write stories of diasporic African life against colonial history’s master narratives. Presented in the Nunnery’s cinema-screen setup alongside works by 24 other artists, the program interrogates themes of memory, narrative, identity, and the archive. The opening preview is scheduled for Friday, November 14, from 6-9pm.

Igwe, who was shortlisted for the Film London Jarman Award and set to open a solo exhibition at Tate Britain, expressed her enthusiasm: “Visions has always been a feature on the London landscape of artist moving image and I have wanted to take part in the program for as long as I have been making work. As it was made just before the pandemic, the names have been changed, including my own and truths have been altered, a highly personal film that tells the story of my family’s origin, has rarely screened in London, my hometown so I am delighted to present it here.”

Programme 2 exhibiting artists include: Lucy Cash, Kate Clark, Jo Cope, Gabi Dao, Anna Doyle, Duck & Rabbit Projects (Arlene Wandera and Richard Zeiss), Tessa Garland, Onyeka Igwe, Sana Iqbal, Mark Jeffery, Emery Joan, Maria Joranko, Anthea Kennedy, Bo Lanyon, Maybelle Peters, Niyaz Saghari, Lou Lou Sainsbury, Kadie Salmon, Vicky Smith, Wilma Stone, Kialy Tihngang, Sasha Waters, Ian Wiblin, Sheri Wills.

Screenings and performance evenings for Programme 2 include: Dorothy Cheung, James Edmonds, Jeremy Fernando, Lauren Heckler, Umi Ishihara, Kamila Kuc, Laima Leyton, Ecka Mordecai, Simon Rattigan, Karen Russo, Shanzay Subzwari, Fanxi Sun, Dara Waldron, Kate Walters.

Event Details and Venue Information

Celebrating film and performance from artists at all career stages, the festival includes an events program with live performances and screenings. Highlights feature films by women filmmakers from India as part of an international exchange, along with student films from the University of East London.

• Admission to the exhibition is free.
• Opening Hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm.
• Location: The Nunnery Gallery at Bow Arts, 181 Bow Road, London E3 2SJ.
• Access: Bow Road Tube Station or Bow Church DLR.

Visions in the Nunnery, established in 1999, offers an informed overview of provocative and quick-changing mediums in moving image and performance. It has exhibited artists such as Oreet Ashery, Tacita Dean, Ori Gersht, Dryden Goodwin, Susan Hiller, Mikhail Karikis, Tina Keane, Lawrence Lek, Uriel Orlow, Hetain Patel, Heather Phillipson, and Nye Thompson, many at early career stages. The festival is curated by lead artists and artist and selector Tessa Garland with Sophie Hill, Director of Arts & Events at Bow Arts.

Bow Arts, founded in 1994, nurtures London’s diverse creativity by providing affordable workspaces, connecting artists with communities, and supporting professional development. As an arts and education charity and social enterprise, it supports sustainable local creative economies through workspaces, the Nunnery Gallery, affordable housing for creatives, and award-winning programs for schools and young people. Over 600 artists, designers, and makers are affiliated with Bow Arts.

Artist Biographies

Rosie Gibbens creates performances, videos, sculptures, and photographs featuring her body, exploring absurd humor in the overlaps of identity, labor, and consumer desire. Her sculptures often combine household gadgets with sewn body parts, activated through low-tech chain reactions. Solo exhibitions include Muta at Pippy Holdsworth Gallery in 2025 and Parabiosis at the Bomb Factory in 2024. In 2022, she won the Ingram Prize ‘Founders Choice’ award and undertook a Sarabande Residency funded by the Alexander McQueen Foundation.

Onyeka Igwe, a London-born moving image artist and researcher, focuses on the question of how we live together, emphasizing sensorial, spatial, and counter-hegemonic ways of knowing. Her work explores prosaic aspects of black livingness through the body, archives, and narratives. Solo exhibitions include history is a living weapon in yr hand at Bonington Gallery and Peer, UK, in 2024, and A Repertoire of Protest (No Dance, No Palaver) at MoMA PS1, New York, in 2023. Recent group shows feature at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024 and South London Gallery in 2023. She has an upcoming solo at Tate Britain in September 2025. Her work is distributed by LUX and argos, and she is represented by Arcadia Missa.

Media Contact and Further Information

For press inquiries, high-resolution images, or interview requests, please contact:

Leah Jun Oh, Marketing Manager

• Email: loh@bowarts.com
• Phone: 07360 176 919

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• Official Hashtag: #VisionsInTheNunnery