Samah Hijawi KWP
The Moon in your Mouth
The Moon in your Mouth is a work that explores kinship, and the interconnectivity of human and non-human beings through astrology and the foods we eat. Stating from the ancient Arabic Hermitic phrase:
No Doubt it is true
that which is above is from that which is below,
and that which is below is from that which is above
it worked the wonders from one,
as all things come from one by means of one considered act,
its father is the sun, its mother is the moon,
the wind carried it in her womb, the earth fed it,
father of talismans, keeper of wonders, perfect in power
This ancient philosophical understanding for the larger cosmology of interconnectedness, guided scientists, farmers, artists and emperors alike. In this performance Samah Hijawi takes this spiritual phrase as a starting point to unravel ancient cosmologies and connects it with the food on our table. As we search for ways to re-tell the story of human life, Samah looks at ancient cosmologies and how the planets in the sky were part of everyday life; when nobody wanted to upset Saturn, or try to stand in the destructive path of Mars!
Mapping the Mediterranean all the way to Central Asia, Samah connects geographies and food with the stars. As she invites the audience to share a meal, she carefully weaves a personal story from her place of birth, unraveling an intricate web of the unlikely connections of the foods we eat with planets in the skies.
• Samah Hijawi (1976) is a multimedia artist based in Brussels. Her projects are research-based and deeply rooted in historical narratives. She draws inspiration from ancient history to re-stage and represent contemporary life. Her research sits at the intersection of ancient mythology and agriculture, astrology and the spiritual traditions that connect us to larger cosmologies beyond the earth.
Her recent visual works, ‘Kinships and Cosmologies’, explore a visual interpretation of ancient cosmologies between plants and the cosmos. In an earlier performance project, ‘Kitchen. Table.’, she focused on food and migration. She previously co-directed Makan Art Space (2003-2016) in Amman. Her work has been shown at the Bukhara Biennale 2025, KANAL Centre Pompidou Brussels, Vooruit Ghent, BOZAR and the Beursschouwburg in Brussels, MoMa New York and Darat al Funun in Jordan.
Van en met Samah Hijawi | Cast olive tree and its offspring, wheat, sesame, sumac, oregano, pomegranate, lentils, lemon, dates, aubergine and dill | Een productie van Kunstenwerkplaats | Met de steun van de Vlaamse Overheid
