Thursday, February 6th at 8pm, ISSUE invites audiences to the 22 Boerum Pl. theater to experience new projects by multidisciplinary artists Leila Hassan and Selwa Abd (Bergsonist).
In her American debut, Leila Hassan presented Sea Urchin at ISSUE in 2018. The “odd dub” collaborative project with Italian artist Francesco Cavaliere explored musical relations with objects, writings and textiles. Hassan's newest installation, hydro phōnḗ, weaves together audiovisual elements and linguistic play, drawing from the ancient Greek words hydro (water) and phōnḗ (voice or sound). This fusion investigates the connection between language and water, inviting the listener to consider the meaning carried by water’s sound. In this work, Hassan amplifies the phōnḗ—the “voice” of water—through a speaker that echoes its resonance. Hassan channels this ancient ingenuity through handmade, round ceramic vases designed to embody the essence of water. These vases possess a sonic body, functioning like a fountain within a fountain, reaching depths that feel almost subterranean. hydro phōnḗ bridges ancient and modern techniques, analog and digital mediums, creating a space reminiscent of the hidden Riads Hassan has encountered in Morocco’s old towns—intimate, concealed, and resonant with timeless echoes.
After discovering the Sea Urchin project in 2019, Selwa Abd invited the artists to contribute to a compilation created for her platform, Bizaarbazaar. The compilation featured 40 tracks centered around the themes of “Sonic Fragment” and “Rhythmic Weaponry,” inspiring the start of their relationship. Abd’s Bergsonist project adopts an intuitive and fragment-based creative approach, drawing inspiration from the works of postmodern philosopher Gilles Deleuze and cognitive scientist David Chalmers. She is interested in building worlds (sonic and visual) as simulations set up for extending creative research and speculations on the future that awaits us. Bergsonist returns to ISSUE this February with a new iteration of As If Reality?, a multimodal work-in-progress series first presented during her 2022 residency in collaboration with Harvestworks (and more recently recontextualized in Norway, last October). Earlier presentations with ISSUE included shattering soundscapes with 360° projections captured in Morocco, and an outdoor performance on Governor’s Island. Her latest work will continue to explore the mind-bending journey between nonvirtual and virtual worlds.
While ongoing access to Boerum remains limited due to the Government of New York City managed renovations, ISSUE is fortunate to have access to our home theater through Spring 2025 with increased capacity due to a temporary permit. ISSUE looks forward to welcoming the public back to the theater, and is invested in community participation to ensure the building reflects the diverse needs and priorities of our artists, audiences and staff.
Selwa Abd is a Moroccan-born artist and composer based in New York City. Her prolific and thought-provoking output challenges critical questions surrounding the future of technology, her own fragmented personal identity shaped by the complexities of post-colonial urban environments, and the influence of virtual realities on contemporary society. She is a recipient of the NYFA x Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment Women’s Fund Grant (2024), the Jerome Hill Artist Alternate Award (2023), an ISSUE Project Room Artist-In-Residence (2022), and the Harvestworks’ Technology Immersion Program Fellowship (2022). She is also the founder of the community resource Pick Up The Flow and has been an NTS Radio resident since 2018. Her latest album “Maghreb” was featured on NPR's list of the best albums of 2024.
Leila Hassan is a Berlin-based, Austrian-born visual artist and distinct speaking voice. She talks mainly through her textiles, light sculpture, and ceramic works, and gives voice and life to radio plays, poetry, and interpretation of other worlds. She is founder of the music & art project Sea Urchin with Francesco Cavaliere.
