Nwando Ebizie multi-sensory experience inspired by visionary Hildegard von Bingen coming to London

British-Nigerian multidisciplinary artist Nwando Ebizie's guided, multi-sensory experience Extreme Unction Vol. 2 will be at London's Toynbee Studios from Wednesday, June 28th to Saturday, July 1st.

The 70-minute piece is a transformative space, inspired by the life and spirit of 12th-century visionary Hildegard von Bingen.

Audience members will be led by a guide in a 20-minute welcome session and offered a hot drink created by chef Adam Thomason.

You’ll be invited to enter the Celestial Tent, a geodesic dome structure, for a 30-minute immersive sound and light piece, during which you can sit on benches with various tactile surfaces, lay down, or walk around a central reflecting pool.

When you come out, your guide will lead you in a 20-minute reflection and sharing session with a refreshing cool drink.

Nwando Ebizie said: "This is a liminal sonic-ritual art environment inspired by the life and spirit of 12th-century visionary Hildegard von Bingen. A transformative space where grieving and loss meet ecstasy and exultation. A cleansing without washing. A touching without being touched. A multisensory experience of intimacy, listening, stillness and communing with inner and outer worlds through sound, touch, taste and sense of the body in space.

"We enter into mythic time as past and present turn in the circle. Bathe in mesmerising beauty and join with oblivion before returning to new life. Featuring a sonic journey which responds to the Hildegard piece ‘Favus Distillans’, a rich, sensuous song by Hildegard that exults in the legend of St Ursula, who, along with 11,000 virgins, died rather than submit to marriage. The song encapsulated death, rebirth and fecund fertility."

Working with architect/designer Bethany Wells and musician and instrument designer Tom Richards, Ebizie has created the Celestial Tent as a structure that is a sculptural and sonic piece in itself. The Tent draws inspiration from hammams, saunas and bathing spaces from various cultures.

Ebizie has a reputation as an unclassifiable polymath who combines research into the neuroscience of perception, inspired by her own neurodiversity and an obsession with science fiction with a ritualistic live art practice.

Extreme Unction Vol. 2 is part of a larger immersive performance and installation, Hildegard: Visions, commissioned by Mahogany Opera with support from Arts Council England.

For more information about Extreme Unction Vol. 2 go to artsadmin.co.uk/events/extreme-unction-vol-2.

Nwando Ebizie image by Dimitri Djuric. Extreme Unction Vol. 2 images by Seren Oakley.