The Moon in your Mouth is a work that explores kinship and the interconnectedness between human and non-human beings through astrology and the foods we eat.  It takes as its starting point a phrase from the book Sirr al-Asrār [The Book of secrets] by the ninth-century scholar Jābir ibn Ḥayyān:

حقٌّ لا شكَّ فيه صَحيح
إنّ الأعلى من الأسفل والأسفل من الأعلى
عمل العجائب من واحد كما كانت الأشياء كلّها من واحد بتدبير واحد
Truth! Certainty! That in which there is no doubt!
That which is above is from that which is below, and that which is below is from that which is above, working the miracles of one.
As all things were from one[1]

Originating during the Islamic Golden Age in what is today northern Iran, this passage encapsulates ancient philosophical understandings of a larger, interconnected cosmology that guided scientists, farmers, artists, and emperors alike. In this performance, Samah draws on this spiritual phrase to unravel ancient cosmologies and connects them to food cultures. As she searches for ways to re-tell the story of human life, Samah looks at ancient cosmologies that understood the planets—and their temperaments—as part of everyday life; nobody wanted to upset Saturn, for example, or try to stand in the destructive path of Mars.

Tracing a path from the Mediterranean to Central Asia, Samah Hijawi  brings geographies, food, and the stars into relation. As she invites the audience to share a meal, she carefully weaves in a personal story from her place of birth in the Eastern Mediterranean, unravelling an intricate web of unlikely connections between earthly bodies and celestial bodies, soil and sky.  

[1] Eric J. Holmyard, ‘The Emerald Table’, Nature, 122 (1923) 525-526, https://doi.org/10.1038/112525a0