REMEMBERING THE VICTIMS OF GENOCIDE Exhibition 'ŠTO TE NEMA' at the Historical Museum of BiH

SARAJEVO, (Patria) – An interactive performance "Reflection and Remembrance" will be held today at the Historical Museum of BiH from 12 PM to 6 PM, as part of the construction of the Spatium Memoriae monument archive (Što te nema) in remembrance of all victims of the genocide in Srebrenica.

For years, artist Aida Šehović has been setting up a unique monument in various cities around the world on the occasion of July 11th, consisting of 8,372 coffee cups that are symbolically filled with coffee.

Those who wish to contribute and participate in arranging the coffee cups on shelves for the exhibition, which opens on July 7th from 7 PM to 11 PM, can register here https://forms.gle/xjWynoC7dVJTjQtL9

Between 2006 and 2020, ŠTO TE NEMA primarily existed as a living, traveling monument to the genocide in Srebrenica, created in collaboration with local communities and the Bosnian diaspora across the USA and Europe. Conceived as a participatory art project in public space by Bosnian-American artist Aida Šehović, the monument was built from thousands of collected coffee cups, which were placed in city squares every July 11th.

Volunteers, passers-by, and the general public were invited to pour Bosnian coffee, prepared on the spot, into the arranged cups and leave them "unsipped" on the ground, in memory of the victims.

Thanks to continuous work and a growing global network, this traveling monument has collected over 8,372 coffee cups for each victim of the genocide over 15 years.

The final installation of ŠTO TE NEMA in the form of a living monument with coffee and cups was presented in 2020 at the Srebrenica Memorial Center.

Šehović believes that the arrival of the traveling monument ŠTO TE NEMA in Srebrenica is also its return home and the appropriate place for the monument to conclude its nomadic form. The permanent installation of the ŠTO TE NEMA monument will be built at the Srebrenica Memorial Center.

Spatium Memoriae acquaints visitors with the personal, emotional, and historical consequences of genocide, inviting the public to learn about the crucial role art plays as a means of social transformation and prevention of systematic violence. The Spatium Memoriae [ŠTO TE NEMA] exhibition illustrates how art creates cathartic spaces of collective memory that can be used as mechanisms for recovery, healing, and crime prevention.

The incomplete archive was first presented at the 58th Venice Biennale as part of the ARTIVISM exhibition organized by the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities. The archive was presented at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg and the Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis in 2021.