Selwa Abd, also known as Bergsonist, is a Moroccan-born, New York–based interdisciplinary artist, composer, and design researcher specializing in
time-based media.
Her multimedia practice reconfigures evolving archives of field recordings, live video, and electronic sounds into immersive, intuitive environments.
Drawing on acousmatic music (musique concrète), sound art, and experimental traditions, she transforms and abstracts these materials using granular synthesis, spectral processing, and real-time electronic techniques, blurring the origins of sound while creating dynamic dialogues between sonic and visual fragments.
Informed by Deleuze’s interpretation of Bergson, Abd uses intuition to explore complex questions of post-colonial identity, techno-futurism and the psychological effects of virtuality on contemporary societiy.
Her performances blur the line between reality and virtuality, envisioning speculative futures while confronting the tensions of the present.
Selwa has collaborated with a wide range of cultural artists across the art and music worlds.
Her compositions have been featured in contemporary art exhibitions, and she has remixed works by musical artists, including Depeche Mode.
She has curated musical and non-musical events for projects such as Bizaarbazaar, Pick Up the Flow, and 3afak, as well as for compilations she has released. Her curatorial work is an ongoing and integral part of her practice, often operating quietly in the background.
She is a recipient of the NYSCA x Roulette Artist Grant (2025), NYFA x Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment’s Women Fund Grant (2024), The Jerome Hill Artist Alternate Award (2023), the Issue Project Room Residency (2022) and
Harvestworks Technology Immersion Program Grant & Fellowship (2022).
Selwa has shown works at MOMA Ps1, Roulette, Moogfest , National Sawdust, EKKO Festival, Mutek Festival, Sonic Arts Festival, Issue Project Room x The Center for Performance Research, Basilica Hudson, Fridman Gallery, The James Gallery, 47 Canal, Batalha Centro De Cinema and The Brooklyn Film Festival to name a few.
Selwa has earned recognition from outlets including The Washington Post, BOMB Magazine, GQ Middle East Magazine, Resident Advisor, Mixmag Mena, NPR and Artforum.
Her music has been released on labels such as Optimo Music and Tresor Records.
Selwa is the founder of the community resource Pick Up The Flow and the publishing imprint BIZAARBAZAAR.
She's been a NTS Radio DJ resident since 2018
awards and press
contact
@bergsonist
@selwaabd
Artist CV
Born 1992, Casablanca, Morocco.
Lives and works in New York City.
Education:
2021 | Career Foundry, User Interface Design Program
2013-2016 | Parsons School Of Design - The New School, BFA in Communication Design (Magna Cum Laude)
Solo Shows:
2022 | “As If Reality Part II”, ISSUE Project Room & Center for Performance Research, NYC
2022 | “As If Reality Part I”, ISSUE Project Room & Harvestworks, Governors Island, NYC
Selected Group Shows:
2025 | Live Performance at Mutek Festival (Montreal)
2025 | “As If Reality Part III” at ISSUE Project Room with Leila Hassan, NYC
2024 | “As If Reality Part III” at EKKO Festival & Bergen senter for elektronisk kunst, Bergen
2024 | “As If Reality Part II” at Printed Matter Book Fair, NYC
2024 | National Sawdust, NYC
2023 | Warm Up Series, MOMA PS1, NYC
2023 | The Future Of Water Festival, Music Gallery, Toronto
2023 | Dream Riots Musical Performance with Bergsonist and Gavilan Rayna Russom curated by Adam Hajyahia, James Art Gallery (CUNY), NYC
2023 | Presentation of multi-media project “Coins” (project with Miho Hatori), Roulette, NYC
2022 | Medium /98.6F series with Miho Hatori, 47 Canal, NYC
2021 | Radial series, Fridman Gallery, NYC
2017 | Show with William Basinski & YATTA, ISSUE Project Room, NYC
Awards:
2025 | NYSCA X Roulette Artist Grant
2024 | NYFA x Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment | Women’s Fund for Media, Music & Theater
2023 | Jerome Hill Artist Alternate Award
2022 | Harvestworks Grant & Fellowship
2020 | SACEM Grant
Residencies:
2024 | Bergen Senter For Elektronisk Kunst Residency
2022 | Issue Project Room x Harvestworks Residency
2018 | RBMA Bootcamp Participation, Bonaroo Festival
Guest Artist / Teaching:
2025 | Emily Evans’s Class “Global Studios and Audiotopias” | Cal Arts
2024 | Masterclass | Bergen Senter For Elektronisk Kunst
2024 | Emily Evans’s Class “Global Studios and Audiotopias” | Cal Arts
2020 | Raphael Griswold’s Class | Pratt Institute
2019 | Dafna Naphtali’s Class | The New School
Talks: 2025 | PUTF interview featuring Laraaji at Dripping Festival 2025 | Studio Demo: “Making Music With Machines” | Demo Festival x New Inc
2025 | Panel: “How to Organically Find New Music” | Libera NYC ✿
2024 | PUTF interview series
2023 | “DIY Design with GENG PTP” | Nowadays ✿
2023 | “Electronic’s Infinite Past, Present..”| Catalog ✿
2019 | “New Media Communities In NYC”| RA✿
2018 | Panel led by Emilie Friedlander | Moogfest ✿
Press:
2025 | Bergsonist curates compilation of Moroccan Electronic Music for Air Texture | DJ Mag
2025 | The Best Albums out April 4th | NPR
2024 | The Best Albums out of Nov. 22 | NPR
2024 | DeForrest Brown, Jr.’s best music of 2024
2024 | The GQ Sound Survey | GQ Middle East (print+online)
2024 | Freedom and Resilience Theme, Bergsonist new EP, Mixmag mena (online)
2023 | MoMA Ps1 Warm Up Feature, Cultured Mag (online)
2023 | Story feat. cross-section of NYC’s DJ community, Cult Classic (print)
2022 | Best Music of 2022, by Jace Clayton, Art Forum (print+online)
2022 | NYC Artists Breaking Barriers, GQ Middle East (print+online)
2020 | Bergsonist's techno diary, The Washington Post (print+online)
2020 | Breaking Through Artist of 2020, Resident Advisor (online)
2020 | 10 Under The Radar Releases.., Dazed (online)
2020 | Q&A by Ruth Saxelby, Love Injection (print)
2020 | Bergsonist Resists, Nouveau York (online)
2020 | A Guide to Bergsonist’s Sprawling, Intuition Driven Electronic Music, Bandcamp Daily (online)
2019 | Bergsonist's Bodiless Archive, Borshch Magazine (print+online)
2019 | Noise 101: Bergsonist, Scene Noise (online)
2019 | Selected by Holly Herndon Interview Series, Mixcloud x Shure (online)
2018 | Elaborate Intuition, Bomb Magazine (print+online)
2017-2024 | Various Features, The Wire (print+online)
Selected Shows:
ISSUE Project Room, MOMA Ps1, Roulette, Moogfest, National Sawdust, EKKO Festival, Sonic Arts Festival, The Center for Performance Research, Basilica Hudson, Fridman Gallery, Spectacle Theater, 47 Canal, The James Gallery (CUNY), Boston Museum, Brooklyn Film Festival, Kafe Haerverk, Dripping Festival, Sustain-Release Festival, Bar Laika, Knockdown Center, Nowadays, Jupiter Disco, Mitsuki (Japan), Station Gare Des Mines (Paris), Industrial 236 (Vancouver), Mood Ring, Elsewhere, Bossa Nova Civic Club, Crown Hill Theater, ELM Foundation, The Music Gallery (Toronto), Paragon, Honey’s, Good Room, Brooklyn Bazaar, Deep Blue (Vancouver), Le Bain, Trauma Bar (Berlin), Ballesta Club (Madrid), Grillx (Vienna), Le Lieu Unique (Nantes), Output, Hyperion Tavern (LA), Secret Project Robot, First Unitarian Congregational Society, Nothing Changes, Betty’s Bar and Grill (Nashville), Sugar Hill Disco, Cafe Koz (Frankfurt), Fourth World Festival, Trans-Pecos, Amant, Pioneer Works, Batalha Centro De Cinema, Mutek.