Aida Šehović
-b. 1977 in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Šehović uses art as a tool to create models for collective acts of healing, mourning, and resistance. Forced to flee her homeland at the beginning of the war in 1992, she lived as a refugee in Turkey and Germany before immigrating to the United States in 1997. She earned a BA with honors from the University of Vermont in 2002 and an MFA from Hunter College as a Jacob K. Javits Fellow in 2010. She is the founder and caretaker of ŠTO TE NEMA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to imagining and building a world without genocide. Her work has been exhibited at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Canadian Museum of Human Rights, Kunsthaus Dresden, Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Queens Museum, KRAK Center for Contemporary Culture, Gallery Manifesto, and during the 58th Venice Biennale. She has received fellowships and support from Culture Push, Socrates Sculpture Park, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, among others. In 2021, she returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina and is now based in Sarajevo.
Perhaps I am afraid that I will forget. So I repeat the gesture—over and over and over again. I repeat it so often that my body, especially my hands, learn to remember without me. How to carry and hold the cup.1
It is small enough to fit perfectly in the palm of your hand. It has no handle, so your fingers wrap around it, growing used to the heat of the coffee over time.
To survive, I started making proper Bosnian coffee—the way my mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and aunts have taught me. The kaymak on top must be thick and creamy. There must be enough for each cup. You must not forget anyone.2
The cups are stronger than they look. Because they are made of porcelain, I always assumed they came from China. But I wonder—who made them? And for whom? How and why did they end up here? And when did we give them their own name—fildžani?
Because they are without handles, they fit perfectly inside one another. When the monument is sleeping, they are stacked in boxes, forming rows of colorful patterns.3
Each year from 2006 to 2020, the monument traveled.4 But it was alive only for one day each year— always on July 11.56
This is the date on which we remember those killed in the Srebrenica Genocide—the first in Europe after World War II. After we had collectively said, never again.7
There are more than 8372 cups that are part of the monument. Each one collected for a person we lost, miss, mourn, and remember. Each buried only after at least one fragment of their body was found and identified. Perhaps an arm. A leg. A finger.
So the genocide continues. Not the physical act of violence, but the endless waiting to find your loved one. The pain remains and is here to stay.8 It is transferred to generations born afterward— generations who do not remember any of this. They do not remember being persecuted, hated, displaced, or erased—all because of their names. Their Bosnian Muslim names.910
I cannot remember alone. So I create spaces where we remember together. This struggle to fully remember, to try to recover what was lost, is at the core of my practice. Perhaps, if we remember together, we will remember better.1112
The text was written in consultancy with Adna Muslija (2024).
1Srebrenica mother Kadira Pašić donating fildžani to the ŠTO TE NEMA nomadic monument. Photo by Bekir Halilović © Aida Šehović and STO TE NEMA, Inc.
2 ŠTO TE NEMA nomadic monument on July 11, 2020 in Potočari/Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Photo: Paul Lowe © Aida Šehović and ŠTO TE NEMA, Inc.
3View of Spatium-Memoriae [ŠTO TE NEMA monument archive] at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Photo by Mikaela MacKenzie © Aida Šehović and STO TE NEMA, Inc.
4Initially conceived as a participatory monument honoring the victims of the Srebrenica Genocide, ŠTO TE NEMA traveled to 15 cities worldwide from 2006 to 2020. Since then, it has evolved into an organization based in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the United States, working with survivors, activists, artists, scholars, and policymakers to challenge and disrupt the normalization of mass atrocities.
ŠTO TE NEMA nomadic monument on July 11, 2013 in New York, USA. Photo: Paul Ramirez Jonas © Aida Šehović and ŠTO TE NEMA, Inc.
5 ŠTO TE NEMA nomadic monument on July 11, 2018 in Zurich, Switzerland. Photo: Sabine Rock © Aida Šehović and ŠTO TE NEMA, Inc.
6ŠTO TE NEMA nomadic monument on 11 July, 2017 in Chicago, USA. Photo by Manka Rabiye © Aida Šehović and STO TE NEMA, Inc
7Video still from a performance Open Letter to the Nobel Prize Committee. On 10th October 2019, The Swedish Academy Committee announced that the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2019 was awarded to the Austrian author Peter Handke. In response, Bosnian-born artist Aida Šehović wrote an Open Letter to The Swedish Academy Committee for the Nobel Prize in Literature to which they never responded. Šehović performed her Open Letter in front of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Belgrade, Serbia the exact moment that Handke received his prize in Stockholm, Sweden.
Vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/749412108
8ŠTO TE NEMA nomadic monument on July 11, 2019 in Venice, Italy. Photo: Adnan Šaćiragić © Aida Šehović and ŠTO TE NEMA, Inc.
9Video still from Apartment, 2021. 2-channel HD video, color, sound, in Bosnian with English subtitles. 13: 40 minutes [loop]
10 “Drawing towards Home” created with people on the move in Camp Lipa in Bihać in 2022. With the support of Krak Center for Contemporary Culture, SOS Bihać and IPSIA BiH.
11 Street Signs Dresden, 2022. BEFORE THE WAR-AFTER THE WAR-WHO IS A VICTIM - WHO IS A PERPETRATOR. Public space intervention at Schiller Platz in Dresden, Germany. Photo by Anja Schneider. © Aida Šehović
12Street Signs Sarajevo-Kyiv, 2023. BEFORE THE WAR-AFTER THE WAR-WHO IS A VICTIM - WHO IS A PERPETRATOR. Public space intervention in Veliki Park, Sarajevo. Photo by Naida Klačar. © Aida Šehović
-r. 1977. u Banjoj Luci, Bosna i Hercegovina. Šehović koristi umjetnost kao alat za stvaranje modela kolektivnog sjećanja, iscjeljenja i otpora. Prisiljena da napusti svoju domovinu početkom rata 1992. godine, živjela je kao izbjeglica u Turskoj i Njemačkoj prije nego što je imigrirala u Sjedinjene Američke Države 1997. Diplomirala je s počastima na Univerzitetu Vermont 2002. godine, a magistrirala na Hunter Collegeu kao stipendistica Jacob K. Javits programa 2010. godine. Osnivačica je i direktorica organizacije ŠTO TE NEMA, neprofitne inicijative posvećene zamišljanju i izgradnji svijeta bez genocida. Njen rad izlagan je u Art Gallery of Western Australia, Kanadskom muzeju ljudskih prava, Kunsthaus Dresden, Historijskom muzeju Bosne i Hercegovine, Queens Museumu, KRAK Centru za savremenu kulturu, Galeriji Manifesto te na 58. Venecijanskom bijenalu. Dobitnica je stipendija i podrške organizacija kao što su Culture Push, Socrates Sculpture Park, Foundation for Contemporary Arts i Rockefeller Brothers Fund, između ostalih. Godine 2021. vratila se u Bosnu i Hercegovinu, a trenutno živi i radi u Sarajevu.
Možda se bojim da ću zaboraviti. Zato ponavljam taj pokret iznova i iznova, opet i opet. Ponavljam ga sve dok moje tijelo, a posebno moje ruke, ne zapamte same od sebe. Kako nositi i držati fildžan.1
Dovoljno je mali da savršeno stane u dlan ruke. Nema ručku, pa se prsti, omotani oko njega, s vremenom naviknu na toplinu vruće kafe.
Kako bih preživjela, počela sam praviti pravu bosansku kafu—onako kako su me učile moje majke, nane, sestre i tetke. Kajmak na vrhu mora biti gust i kremast. Mora ga biti dovoljno za svaki fildžan. Niko ne smije biti zaboravljen.2
Fildžani su čvršći nego što izgledaju. Napravljeni su od porculana i zbog toga sam uvijek pretpostavljala da dolaze iz Kine. Pitam se ko ih je napravio? I za koga? Kako i zašto su završili ovdje? I kada smo im dali to ime—fildžani?
Zbog toga što nemaju ručke, savršeno se slažu jedan u drugi. Kada spomenik „spava“, fildžani su složeni u kutije i formiraju redove šarenih uzoraka.3
Svake godine od 2006. do 2020. spomenik je putovao.4 Ali bio je živ samo jedan dan u godini— svakog 11. jula.56
To je datum na koji se prisjećamo onih koji su ubijeni tokom genocida u Srebrenici—prvog u Evropi nakon Drugog svjetskog rata. Nakon što smo kolektivno rekli „nikada više“.7
Više od 8372 fildžana čini dio ovog spomenika. Svaki je prikupljen za jednu osobu koju smo izgubili, koja nam nedostaje, za kojom tugujemo i koju pamtimo. No, sahranjenu tek nakon što je barem jedan dio njihovog tijela pronađen i identificiran. Možda ruka. Noga. Prst.
Genocid se tako nastavlja. Ne kroz fizički čin nasilja, već kroz beskrajno čekanje da pronađeš voljenu osobu. Ta bol ostaje i ne odlazi.8 Prenosi se na generacije rođene nakon toga—generacije koje se ničega od ovoga ne sjećaju. Ne sjećaju se progona, mržnje, raseljavanja ili brisanja – zbog svojih imena, svojih bošnjačkih, muslimanskih imena.910
Ne mogu pamtiti sama. Zbog toga stvaram prostore u kojima pamtimo zajedno. Ova borba da se sve potpuno zapamti, da pokušamo povratiti ono što je izgubljeno, srž je moje prakse. Možda, ako pamtimo zajedno, pamtit ćemo bolje.1112
Tekst je napisan u konsultaciji s Adnom Muslija (2024).
1 Majka Srebrenice, Kadira Pašić, donira fildžane nomadskom spomeniku ŠTO TE NEMA. Foto: Bekir Halilović © Aida Šehović i ŠTO TE NEMA, Inc.
2Nomadski spomenik ŠTO TE NEMA 11. jula 2020. u Potočarima/Srebrenici, Bosna i Hercegovina. Foto: Paul Lowe © Aida Šehović i ŠTO TE NEMA, Inc.
3Pogled na Spatium-Memoriae [arhiv spomenika ŠTO TE NEMA] u Kanadskom muzeju ljudskih prava. Foto: Mikaela MacKenzie © Aida Šehović i ŠTO TE NEMA, Inc.
4Prvobitno osmišljen kao participativni spomenik u čast žrtvama genocida u Srebrenici, ŠTO TE NEMA je putovao kroz 15 gradova širom svijeta od 2006. do 2020. godine. Od tada se razvio u organizaciju sa sjedištima u Bosni i Hercegovini i Sjedinjenim Američkim Državama, koja sarađuje s preživjelima, aktivistima, umjetnicima, istraživačima i donosiocima odluka kako bi osporila i prekinula normalizaciju masovnih zločina. ŠTO TE NEMA nomadski spomenik, 11. juli 2013, New York, SAD. Foto: Paul Ramirez Jonas © Aida Šehović i ŠTO TE NEMA, Inc.
5ŠTO TE NEMA nomadski spomenik, 11. juli 2018, Zürich, Švicarska. Foto: Sabine Rock © Aida Šehović i ŠTO TE NEMA, Inc.
6 ŠTO TE NEMA nomadski spomenik, 11. juli 2017, Chicago, SAD. Foto: Manka Rabiye © Aida Šehović i ŠTO TE NEMA, Inc.
7Video kadar iz performansa Otvoreno pismo Nobelovom komitetu. Dana 10. oktobra 2019. godine, Švedska akademija objavila je da je Nobelova nagrada za književnost za 2019. dodijeljena austrijskom piscu Peteru Handkeu. Aida Šehović napisala je Otvoreno pismo Nobelovom komitetu za književnost, na koje nikada nije dobila odgovor. Šehović je izvela performans Otvoreno pismo ispred Srpske akademije nauka i umetnosti u Beogradu, Srbija, u trenutku kada je Handke primao nagradu u Stockholmu, Švedska. Vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/749412108
8ŠTO TE NEMA nomadski spomenik, 11. juli 2019, Venecija, Italija. Foto: Adnan Šaćiragić © Aida Šehović i ŠTO TE NEMA, Inc.
9Kadar iz videa Apartment, 2021. Dvokanalni HD video, boja, zvuk, na bosanskom jeziku sa engleskim titlovima. 13:40 minuta [loop].
10 „Drawing towards Home“ realiziran je u kolaboraciji s ljudima u pokretu u kampu Lipa u Bihaću 2022. godine. Uz podršku Krak Centra za savremenu kulturu, SOS Bihać i IPSIA BiH.
11 Street Signs Dresden, 2022. BEFORE THE WAR-AFTER THE WAR-WHO IS A VICTIM - WHO IS A PERPETRATOR. Intervencija u javnom prostoru na Schiller Platz-u u Drezdenu, Njemačka. Foto: Anja Schneider. © Aida Šehović
12Street Signs Sarajevo-Kyiv, 2023. BEFORE THE WAR-AFTER THE WAR-WHO IS A VICTIM - WHO IS A PERPETRATOR. Intervencija u javnom prostoru na Velikom parku, Sarajevo. Foto: Naida Klačar. © Aida Šehović
