Selwa Abd, also known as Bergsonist, is a Moroccan-born, New York–based multimedia artist, composer, performer, and researcher. Her practice spans live performance, audio-video installation, sound composition, and recorded music.
Abd has received the Issue Project Room Residency, the Harvestworks Technology Immersion Fellowship, the Jerome Hill Artist Alternate Award, the NYFA x Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment Women’s Fund Grant, and the NYSCA x Roulette Intermedium Artist Grant. Her work has been presented at MoMA PS1, Roulette, Moogfest, EKKO Festival, Mutek Festival, Sonic Acts Festival, Batalha Centro de Cinema, Amant, and the Brooklyn Film Festival. It has been covered by The Washington Post, BOMB Magazine, GQ, Resident Advisor, Mixmag Mena, NPR, and Artforum.
Her work reconfigures archival material (found sounds, processed sounds, and live video) into immersive environments and recorded music. Drawing on electroacoustic and musique concrète traditions, and informed by Gilles Deleuze’s reading of Henri Bergson, she works with electronics, DIY instruments, and signal processing, including granular and spectral techniques. Through these she examines postcolonial identity, techno-futurism, and the psychological effects of virtuality in contemporary culture.
Intuition is both a critical and an operative framework in her practice, and her research in media theory uses sound as a lens on how time, memory, and perception are mediated by technology. In performance, she blurs the line between the real and the virtual, proposing speculative temporalities while confronting the tensions of the present.
Her recent projects, ASL أصل ⴰⵙⵍ and As If Reality, extend her sonic practice into larger archival and visual frameworks.
Her discography spans more than a decade, with over seven albums, fifteen EPs, and numerous features on labels including Optimo Music, Borft Records, Columbia Records, Dark Entries, and Tresor Records. She has also remixed artists including Depeche Mode and collaborated widely across contemporary art and experimental music.
Curation and community-building are integral to her work. Abd founded Pick Up The Flow, an NYC-based community resource for artists, and BIZAARBAZAAR, an independent publishing imprint. She has been an NTS Radio resident since 2018, has curated events and label compilations, and hosts and produces the PUTF podcast, featuring conversations with NYC-based artists, curators, and creatives.
She has spoken about her practice at BEK, Moogfest, MoMA PS1, and New Inc’s Demo Festival, and has been a guest in classes at The New School, CalArts, and Pratt.
She holds a BFA in Communication Design from Parsons School of Design (The New School).
Short bio (~90 words):
Selwa Abd, aka Bergsonist, is a Moroccan-born, New York–based multimedia artist, composer/performer, and researcher. Working across live performance, audio-video installation, and recorded music, she reconfigures archival material into immersive environments, drawing on musique concrète and media theory to explore postcolonial identity, techno-futurism, and mediated perception.
Her work has been presented at MoMA PS1, Roulette, MUTEK, and Sonic Acts, and released on Tresor, Optimo Music, and Dark Entries. She is the founder of Pick Up The Flow and BIZAARBAZAAR, and has been an NTS Radio resident since 2018.
Micro bio (~45 words):
Selwa Abd, aka Bergsonist, is a Moroccan-born, New York–based multimedia artist, composer/performer, and researcher. Her live performances, installations, and recordings reconfigure archival sound into immersive environments exploring postcolonial identity and mediated perception.
Her work has been presented at MoMA PS1, Roulette and MUTEK, and released on Optimo Music and Dark Entries.
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