The Invisible Dog (New York City) and BUoY Arts Center (Tokyo) are thrilled to welcome Sama Beydoun as artist in residency during NAFAS Festival
Sama Beydoun’s Mother Tongue is an ongoing photo-based project exploring memory, migration, and matriarchy through food. It began as a personal reflection after leaving Lebanon, documenting the relationship between generations of women in her family, and evolved into a broader investigation of transmission within the Lebanese diaspora.
Through an open call, Beydoun invited participants to share inherited recipes, which became entry points into conversations about family, identity, and displacement. Each recipe was documented through photography and text, often recreated across geographies, creating a visual bridge between Lebanon and its diaspora. The work brings together images, publication, ceramics and moving image, examining how food functions as a language when words and proximity fall short.
Born & raised in Beirut, Sama Beydoun is a multi-disciplinary artist, currently based in Paris. She juggles and mixes between design commissions, photography projects, typography collaborations and other creative collaborations.
She graduated from the American University of Beirut with a BFA in graphic design and a minor in art history. Her graduating project “Beirut Street Museum” received international recognition. Beydoun went on to graduate from École de Communications visuelles in Paris with a masters in Design & Strategy, with high distinction on her graduating project “Your reality is not mine”.
"Mother Tongue" is her latest published work, it was exhibited in Paris and won the "Laureat du publique" award, it was also published as a book.
Her work draws much of its inspiration from the streets and its people, gravitating around topics related to visual culture, social causes and collective narratives.
Her photography has been shown in Paris, New York, Marseille, Dubai, Barcelona and Beirut. Her work has been published in Granta, Alhayya, Lomography New York, amongst others.
Acknowledgment
Sama Beydoun’s residency in Tokyo has been made possible thanks to the exceptional and generous support of Marwan Assaf, Rima Abdul Malak and Joanna Chevalier.
Location
BUoY Arts Center
49-11, Senju-Nakacho, Adachi-ku,
Tokyo
Date
August 31 - September 16, 2026
Program of workshop to be announced