Sama Beydoun’s Mother Tongue Strengthens Diasporic Memory Through a Living Archive of Culinary Heritage
Culinary Journey Connects Families
Sama Beydoun has undertaken a unique exploration of culinary arts that transcends geographical boundaries. Back in Lebanon, she retraced her participants’ family histories by visiting their ancestral villages. Through this journey, she sought out those who held the recipes dear, often parents or grandparents, and invited them to recreate their traditional dishes. This process not only revived cherished memories but also created a dynamic archive that linked one meal across two locations. The project embodies themes of memory, migration, and care.
Through these encounters, Beydoun collected a diverse set of materials. Photographs taken during her visits, voice recordings of the cooks sharing the history of their dishes, and what she terms “flying recipes” represent the cultural exchanges spanning people, generations, and geographies.
Film Highlights Global Community
Beydoun subsequently compiled these narratives into a five-minute short film that offers an intimate portrayal of a global community united through food. The film collages these personal stories into a rich tapestry while avoiding nostalgia or romanticism. Instead, it reflects the authentic complexity of kitchens, the depth of lived memories, and the profound emotional weight of shared meals.
The installation features a set of ceramic sculptures that depict common vegetables such as okra, onions, carrots, and mushrooms. These exaggerated forms serve a dual purpose, appearing both monumental and familiar. Their size and texture create a tactile connection, evoking a remembered space of care and continuity.
Themes of Transmission and Memory
Central to Mother Tongue is the concept of transmission—exploring what we inherit and how it shapes our identities. Beydoun articulates that food serves not merely as sustenance but as a vessel for memory. She emphasizes the importance of smells, tastes, and gestures within the kitchen as integral tools of remembrance. Beydoun states unequivocally, “We often take food for granted when we have it. But it’s so immaterial—it’s a savoir-faire, an experience.” This project transforms the kitchen from a mundane backdrop into a meaningful site where personal histories converge with cultural memories.
Revisiting Domestic Spaces
In many Arab cultures, kitchens are often intimate spaces shaped by the contributions of women, usually situated away from the public eye. By placing this domestic sphere within an artistic framework, Beydoun underscores its significance, presenting it as a site of memory, labor, and power. Her work navigates potentially clichéd themes—food, Lebanon, and women’s roles in the kitchen—while offering a nuanced perspective grounded in her lived experiences.
Raised in a matriarchal household where women were central figures, Beydoun reinterprets the notion of the domestic space not as one of subservience but as a realm of agency. In her artistic narrative, food becomes a medium of inheritance, language, and identity.
Conclusion
Sama Beydoun’s Mother Tongue serves as a poignant reminder of the connections fostered through food and memory. Through her art, she engages with complicated narratives of heritage, identity, and emotional resonance, creating a living archive that challenges conventional perspectives on domestic spaces and culinary heritage.
For further insights into Beydoun’s project and its implications, additional context can be found on Savoir Flair.
