Draft:ŠTO TE NEMA

Summary

ŠTO TE NEMA (English: “Where Have You Been?” or “Why Aren’t You Here?”) is a participatory public monument designed to collectively honor and remember the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide.

The interactive nomadic monument had traveled the world from 2006 to 2020 through ongoing partnerships between artist Aida Šehović and Bosnian diaspora communities.

The monument was collectively assembled and disassembled every year on July 11 by volunteers and visitors, using donated porcelain coffee cups (fildžani [add footnote]), each filled with Bosnian coffee, brewed on site, and placed together in a public square. The cups were collected through community-driven efforts over the course of the monument’s journey; each donated cup symbolically representing a victim. By the monument’s final iteration as a nomadic monument in 2020, over 8,372 cups were collected, accounting for each documented victim.

As each participant filled their cup, the monument grew, expanding each time a contribution was made. Uniting survivors and the public in this process, ŠTO TE NEMA created an inclusive space for confronting universal issues – of loss, healing, hope, empathy and solidarity in the face of mass violence – as a unified global community. ŠTO TE NEMA, Inc. grew out of the 15-year old public art project, officially becoming a 501(c)(3) organization based in New York and Sarajevo in 2022. The permanent version of the ŠTO TE NEMA monument is to be built at the Srebrenica Memorial Center in the near future.

Quick Facts

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Founded: 2006

Founder: Aida Šehović

Co-founders and Key Organization Members: Edina Škaljić, Dženeta Karabegović

Type: Grassroots Art Project, Public Art, Non-For Profit Organization

Location: New York, Sarajevo

Website: https://stotenema.org/

Mission

ŠTO TE NEMA, Inc. is registered as a 501(c)(3) organization in the US with a non-profit subsidiary in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The organization’s vision and mission is to use art, education and activism as tools for individual and collective healing, and building a world without genocide and mass atrocities.

ŠTO TE NEMA, Inc. galvanizes individuals to rise up against mass atrocities and genocide denial by partnering with genocide survivors, community organizers, academics and artists.

Using art, education and activism built on empathy, solidarity and participatory practices, ŠTO TE NEMA, Inc. generates a radical model for intergenerational genocide remembrance and prevention. The organization aims to foster a culture of remembrance that moves beyond traditional ways of commemorating genocide, which often present a narrowly defined message of remembrance on behalf of a public. Instead, ŠTO TE NEMA nurtures intimate, personal, and community-driven remembrance practices and collaborations while simultaneously challenging the growing narratives of genocide denial and triumphalism that continue to surface in Bosnia and Herzegovina and beyond.

Artist: Aida Šehović

Aida Šehović was born in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Šehović lived as a refugee in Turkey and Germany during the war in her homeland in the early 1990’s, having immigrated to the US afterwards. She has since returned home, and currently lives and works between New York and Sarajevo.

"I don’t know that I would have become an artist if this hadn’t happened to my family and my country," states Šehović . "Art helps me talk about that and process it."

Šehović believes that artistic interventions like ŠTO TE NEMA have a unique role in confronting identity based violence affecting so many people globally today. Šehović explains:

“If you are someone who has never felt unsafe, has never felt that your identity has been threatened, if you hold that cup in your hand, you are connected forever. You can never tell me you don’t know. Your understanding of Srebrenica and hopefully all genocide and atrocities changes, because here you were holding a cup that represents one human who was killed because of who they were.”

Šehović received her BA with Honors from the University of Vermont in 2002 and her MFA as a Jacob K. Javits Fellow from the City University of New York’s Hunter College in 2010.

She is the recipient of the Emerging Artist Fellowship from Socrates Sculpture Park (2013) and the Culture Push Fellowship for Utopian Practice (2017). Šehović was an artist-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center (2005); the Santa Fe Art Institute (2006); the Grand Central Art Center (2014); the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (2015 and 2019), Laumeier Sculpture Park (2021) and Memory for the Future Lab (2022).

Her work has been exhibited at Ars Aevi Nucleus Kyiv, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the KRAK Center for Contemporary Culture, Kunsthaus Dresden, the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Laumeier Sculpture Park, the Queens Museum, Socrates Sculpture Park and ARTIVISM: Atrocity Prevention Pavilion concurrent with the 58th Venice Biennale. Her work has received support from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York State Council for the Arts, Open Society Fund and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Origins

ŠTO TE NEMA was initiated by artist and Bosnian war refugee Aida Šehović in response to the Srebrenica Genocide - the systematic killing of 8,372 Bosniak men and boys in Srebrenica during the Bosnian War. Šehović started the memorial project in 2006 as a one-time performance to bring attention to the victims of the legally established genocide, a fact that was still being overlooked or denied by Bosnian Serb and Serbian political authorities in the Balkans. Over time, the project evolved into a participatory, nomadic monument, growing each year through fildžan donations, and traveling the world, prior to returning to Srebrenica in 2020 for its last iteration.

The name of the monument, ŠTO TE NEMA, is taken from a beloved Bosnian folk song in the sevdalinka style, which evokes the anguish of longing for a loved one's return. Šehović developed the idea of using coffee as the structure of the monument after reading a story by one of the women survivors of Srebrenica, who said that what she missed most about her husband was the fact she had no one to drink coffee with anymore. Šehović thus became “interested in exploring through this work what loss means on a daily basis. How does it feel? What does genocide feel like after it has occurred? We often pay attention to such tragedies as they unfold, then we move on. But how does loss actually manifest itself in daily life? And so, a cup of coffee waiting for someone became a clear, simple gesture that said so much.”

In Bosnian culture, drinking coffee is a widely practiced intimate social ritual shared between family members and friends. Each undrunk cup in the memorial represents the loss of a victim who is no longer able to share a coffee with their community, friends, and family. Indeed, this installation “draws on what might be the foundation of Bosnian community-building, a shared cup of coffee. As none other than Dragan Obrenović, who commanded forces that perpetrated the genocide in Srebrenica, stated when he plead guilty for crimes at Srebrenica before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia:

Surrounded by horrors, we got used to them and went on living like that. Among those horrors, things happened that were done by people who knew each other, people who, until yesterday, had lived almost as family members together. In Bosnia, a neighbor means more than a relative. In Bosnia, having coffee with your neighbor is a ritual, and this is what we trampled on and forgot. We lost ourselves in hatred and brutality. And in this vortex of terrible misfortune and horror, the horror of Srebrenica happened. (Dragan Obrenović, Guilty Plea Statement, 30 October 2003)”

For the first performance in Sarajevo in 2006, Šehović collected 932 cups from local families and members of the Women of Srebrenica Association. While initial performances just featured Šehović placing and serving the coffee cups, the monument soon became participatory, allowing the wider community not only to donate cups, but also to come and place a cup in memory of the victims, as well as help Šehović prepare the coffee.

A Participatory Monument

As the monument travelled annually to different cities in Europe and North America, in collaboration with Bosnian diaspora organizations, each performance was held in a prominent public square in the host city on July 11^th, marking the anniversary of the first day of the genocide. The construction of the monument would be executed by a regional coordinator, a selection of volunteers, and on-site photographers, who would help to prepare the coffee, assemble the memorial, document the event, and invite passers-by to participate. In the last six to eight years, the volunteers would also participate in disassembling the monument at the end of the day.

Šehović wants ŠTO TE NEMA to remain a monument that is open to everyone, and for us to persist in trying to figure out how to make it even more inclusive and relevant for people who might not be connected to Srebrenica or Bosnia. She says: “Even though we are commemorating one specific genocide, this is truly about all genocides and what we can all do to change the current trajectory. This is why, for example, there are no signs, flags, or banners on the site where we construct the monument. So, instead of symbols and signs, we have trained volunteers on site who encourage conversations between visitors. People end up organically inviting each other to participate by filling the collected fildžani with coffee in memory of the victims who will never drink it. It is so important that we are all there first and foremost as humans, supporting and taking care of each other.” This is also why Šehović talks about ŠTO TE NEMA as our monument and not ‘my’ monument.

Locations

ŠTO TE NEMA traveled to countries in Europe and North America over the course of 15 years with the support of hundreds of volunteers and over a hundred community partners and organizations.

2006

Baščaršija, Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina.

2007

Headquarters of the United Nations, New York City, United States.

2008

Trg Žratava Genocida, Tuzla, Bosnia & Herzegovina.

2009

Het Plein, The Hague, The Netherlands.

2010

Norrmalmstorg, Stockholm, Sweden.

2011

Church Street, Burlington, United States.

2012

Taksim Square, İstanbul, Turkey.

2013

Washington Square Park, New York City, United States.

2014

Yonge-Dundas Square, Toronto, Canada

2015

Place de Saint Gervais, Geneva, Switzerland

2016

Copley Square, Boston, United States.

2017

Daley Plaza, Chicago, United States.

2018                                                                                                                    

Helvetiaplatz, Zürich, Switzerland.

2019

Serra dei Giardini, Venice, Italy.

2020

Srebrenica-Potočari Genocide Memorial, Srebrenica, Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Final Iteration of the Nomadic Monument

In 2020, ŠTO TE NEMA was invited to be part of the 25^th anniversary commemoration at the Srebrenica-Potočari Genocide Memorial, a memorial complex at the original site of the mass atrocities. By this time, 8,372 cups had been collected, one for every victim. This was the final performance of the monument in its original nomadic form.

“When I started this in 2006, it was conceived as a one-off performance, something that would take place only once. That set-up in Sarajevo was also not interactive as only I filled the cups with coffee,” Šehović told BIRN by phone from Srebrenica. “Everything kind of fell in place and the circle has closed. The number of cups is now close to the number of victims and I was invited to come to Srebrenica on the 25th anniversary of the genocide,” she said.

Where Have You Been? Documentary Film

During the run-up to the 25^th anniversary commemoration, the ŠTO TE NEMA team worked with Pinch Media to produce a feature-length documentary film, Where have you been?, which tells the 15-year story of the monument. It looks closely at the life of Aida Šehović, evoking her obsession with caring for, and continuing to learn from, her home country and people, while blending into her adoptive life in New York City.

The film is directed by Mirko Pincelli and due to be released in 2023.

Spatium Memoriae [ŠTO TE NEMA]

Spatium Memoriae [ŠTO TE NEMA] has become a way for elements of the memorial to be on display after its final iteration in Srebrenica. It consists of more than 8,372 collected fildžani and 15 posters for each of the annual iterations of the public art project. Included in the ARTIVISM exhibition organized by The Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities, this work was on view at The Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg until March 26, 2022.

Spatium Memoriae [ŠTO TE NEMA] then traveled back to Bosnia for an exhibition in collaboration with the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Srebrenica Memorial Center. More than 3,000 people visited the exhibition and joined the public programs in Sarajevo from July 8 to September 4, 2022, all made possible by generous contributions from Authority Partners, Girls Guide, Leda Voda, and a U.S. Embassy Cultural Grant.

Spatium Memoriae [ŠTO TE NEMA] then traveled to Germany for NORTHEAST SOUTHWEST organized by Kunsthaus Dresden and their partners. This expansive project brought together artists and cultural institutions from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Lebanon, and Poland for exhibitions, performances and public events from September 23 to November 13, 2022. In addition to attending the opening, Šehović participated in “Lines of Flight” public conversations on October 15.

Educational Programs

In the summer of 2022, ŠTO TE NEMA conducted their first ŠTO TE NEMA Monument Lab in partnership with Kuma International in Sarajevo during their annual summer school. The 3-day lab included a visit to the Srebrenica Memorial Center and workshops on the intersection between art, memory, and activism in post-genocide societies.

In the fall of 2022, they had their second ŠTO TE NEMA Monument Lab during Šehović’s artist residency as part of the Memory for the Future Lab at Washington University in St. Louis.

ŠTO TE NEMA also shared their work with academic and non-academic audiences. Examples of this include the discussion at Fractured Heart of Europe at the University of Antwerp and at Geographies of Belonging: Art, Politics and Communality initiated by the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven and conceived in collaboration with artist Lana Čmajčanin, art theorist Jelena Petrović and the KRAK Center for Contemporary Culture.

Support / Partners

The community of ŠTO TE NEMA began with the Women of Srebrenica Association, who donated the first 923 cups. Now, this community has expanded to a global network of partners, coordinators, volunteers, and participants who have helped to bring the participatory monument to countries across Europe and North America.

Key coordinators, volunteers and on-site photographers over the years have included:

• Women of Srebrenica Association / Udruženje “Žene Srebrenice”
• Academy of Bosnia and Herzegovina Inc.

• BiH Platform Nederland; Politiek Comité Stari Most Nederland
• NBV; Nykterhetsrörelsens Bildnings­verksamhet
• Bosnian Herzegovinian Youth Association in Sweden/Bosansko-Hercegovački omladinski savez u Švedskoj
• Bosniska Islamiska Församlingen
• Church Street Marketplace Burlington
• Genç Boşnaklar Derneği İstanbul
• White & Case LLP
• Hill+Knowlton Strategies
• Bosnian Islamic Association “Gazi Husrev-Beg” Toronto
• L’Association Solidarité Bosnie Genève
• Matica Bosne i Hercegovine Zürich
• New England Friends of Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Trinity Church Boston; Bosnian and Herzegovinian Club of Chicago;
• Bosnian American Genocide Institute and Education Center;
• Bosnian-North American Women’s Association
• Bosnian Islamic Cultural Center; Islamic Cultural Center of Greater Chicago
• Society of American Bosnians and Herzegovinians
• Bosniak Cultural Community Preporod of North America
• Association of Srebrenica Survivors
• La Terra Nostra; Human Rights Film Festival Zurich
• MAXIM Theater
• Paul Schiller Stiftung, Zürich
• Stiftung für Kriegstraumatherapie
• Integrationskredit der Stadt Zürich
• Katholische Kirche im Kanton Zürich
• Reformierte Kirche im Kanton Zürich
• Mutation Press Zürich; Udruženje žena Merdžan
• Džemat Luzern
• 100-days.net
• Jenseits im Viadukt
• I-platform
• Giving Women
• The Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities
• Associazione Culturale Bosniaca Stecak
• US Embassy to Italy
• Venice Art Factory
• Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center
• Post-Conflict Research Center
• Pinch Media

Event Testimonials

Haris Čelić, quoted in The Globe and Mail, 2014:

Haris Čelić, the 22-year-old organizer of Toronto's event, saw the monument in Istanbul and was so impressed by the outcome that he felt compelled to bring it home."I think that people don't know about [the war]. … They don't really know any details of what happened and how it happened." The hardest part for him, he said, is the denial by some that a genocide took place.

Mirsada Karačić, quoted in the Financial Times, 2020:

On Friday evening, as the sun set in front of the Srebrenica Memorial Center in Potocari, Mirsada Karacic poured Bosnian coffee for 21 family members and friends from a filigree pot into fildzani, round thimble cups. “This is for Babo,” she said, pouring a cup for her father.  She repeated the ritual 20 more times, one cup each for her four nephews, her brother-in-law and friends from high school, some of whose bodies have never been found. “Twenty-five years later I still keep asking myself, ‘How did this happen?’ We went to school together for eight years,” she says of her prewar Serb friends. “We never felt any kind of hatred for one another. Every year this gets harder and harder for me.”

Mirnes Bakija, quoted in Fair Planet, 2020:

"It took us more than ten hours to arrange them and pour the coffee", Sarajevo-based journalist and activist Mirnes Bakija told FairPlanet. "Then again, it took hours to wash the cups. Thousands of fildžans with unconsumed coffee cannot leave anyone indifferent. Emotions overwhelm you."

Ambassador Muhamed Šaćirbey, for HuffPost, 2016:

"Što Te Nema?", besides being an exceptionally meaningful tribute to those who are no longer with us, is also unique in its collaborative nature. This year, the volunteers and contributors list includes a very diverse group of individuals of all background, who collectively take a strong stand against genocide, as a crime against entire humanity that affects us all, directly and indirectly. To add an even more special meaning to the construction of the monument, a Boston staple, the Trinity Church, has graciously agreed to grant "Što Te Nema?" water access- a crucial necessity to adequately execute the logistics of the project. The Bosnian American community in the area sees this as a beautiful sign of positive interfaith relations, and a show of true Bostonian spirit. If you happen to be in Boston, pass by Copley Square, take in the smell of freshly made Bosnian coffee and contemplate the role and responsibility that each one of us has in making sure that "Never again" is not only an overused empty phrase but rather a reality for people all around the world because as we speak, the "Never again" unfortunately has turned to "Once again" in many places around the globe.

Valentina Grganović, for Balkan Diskurs, 2022:

As we methodically cleaned and dried the cups, the youth participants continued to share their thoughts about the present situation in their society and their wishes for the future. We had all learned something new, about ourselves, about others, about the simple wish of a mother to find one single bone so that she could bury and pray over her son. It is hard to summarize the whole of the “Što te nema” project, together with being involved in the Srebrenica Youth Camp, but I can say this: peace is something we should respect and protect with all our might.