WALID BEN SELIM, Here and Now

Here and now: between the debris of things and the feeling of nothingness, we live in the suburbs of Eternity. Walid Ben Selim acts as the voice for the greatest names in Sufi poetry. Through this mythical, mystical, and ancient Orient, he seeks to pierce the primal vibration in an epic and meditative breath. Accompanied by the virtuoso classical harpist Marie-Marguerite Cano, he creates a space for musical spirituality, a form of exchange between the spoken Arabic language and the symbolic language of the harp. A poetic territory strewn with love and triumphant joy.

Walid Ben Selim

Walid Ben Selim (Casablanca, 1984) is a composer, musician, and multidisciplinary artist. He co-founded the Nayda movement in Morocco before moving to France in 2002 to continue his musical studies. In 2010, he was invited to the Gowri Art Institute in Kerala for an artistic residency under the direction of Sajitha Shankar, where he deepened his engagement with Arabic poetry. In 2012, he founded the ensemble N3rdistan, which received recognition at Printemps de Bourges and Visa for Music (2015). The group has performed over 200 concerts internationally.

His compositions cover theatre, poetry, and film, including An Ordinary Emergency (2018), Sidi Valentin (2021), and Haych Maych (2022). He collaborates with the national stage of Sète and the Opera of Montpellier, as well as other institutions in France and has appeared at festivals such as the Sacred Music Festival and Recbeat. He maintains a studio in the Eastern Pyrenees, from which he curates interdisciplinary residencies combining poetry, theatre, and music.

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