WHERE ARE YOU: 8,373 coffee cups to be placed in Venice on July 11

VENICE, (Patria) - When Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992, ethnonationalist divisions plunged BiH into one of the largest armed conflicts in European history. In July 1995, the Bosnian Serb army attacked a UN safe zone that included Srebrenica, a town where thousands of Bosnian Muslims had sought refuge from violence in surrounding areas. After the attack on Srebrenica, Bosnian women and girls of Islamic faith were expelled from Srebrenica, while 8,373 men and boys who remained were systematically killed. In 2006, the International Criminal Court officially termed these events genocide.

Today, the region remains ethnically divided. Serbian leaders, as well as leaders of the Bosnian Serbs, continue to deny that genocide occurred in Srebrenica.

In response to the denial of genocide, Bosnian-American artist Aida Šehović created the nomadic monument "WHERE ARE YOU" as a form of remembrance for the 8,373 victims of the Srebrenica genocide (stotenema.org). For years, Šehović has been collecting coffee cups traditionally used for drinking coffee in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which symbolically represent the number of genocide victims in Srebrenica. Since 2006, together with local communities, Šehović has organized the installation of the "WHERE ARE YOU" monument in public squares every July 11, each time in a different city around the world.

Each successful installation of the monument represents a victory over forces that advocate for the denial and negation of genocide, and that encourage ignoring past crimes to prevent the healing process necessary for the recovery of post-war society. Given the inclusive and universal spirit of the monument, passersby are invited to participate in its realization by filling the cups with Bosnian coffee, which will symbolically remain undrunk in the square where the monument is installed.

This year, the "WHERE ARE YOU" monument will be installed in Venice, Italy, as part of the exhibition "Artivism: The Pavilion for the Prevention of Crimes" organized by the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR), an international non-governmental organization dedicated to preventing mass atrocities. This exhibition is also one of the pavilions of the Venice Biennale.

This year's edition of "WHERE ARE YOU" will be installed on July 11 at the Serra dei Giardini in Venice. Volunteers will be present at the location throughout the day to inform the public about the project, its history, and its significance for preventing crimes and the persecution of people from their homes, which occur daily around the world.

The project "Artivism: The Pavilion for the Prevention of Crimes" highlights the work of artists and collectives who use art as a means to confront and combat identity-based violence and its consequences. The exhibition features works by artists responding to six different cases of genocide and other mass atrocities, each representing different parts of the world: Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Indonesia, Iraqi Kurdistan, and South Africa.

In addition to the "WHERE ARE YOU" installation and the other five related exhibits, Artivism aims to turn visitors into activists, emphasizing the power of individuals to play a role in preventing crimes both in their homeland and around the world. Therefore, the final room of the pavilion highlights the work of AIPR and three other international human rights organizations, each of which has created a series of actions that visitors can take lasting 60 seconds, 60 minutes, or 60 days, representing their contribution to the prevention of identity-based hatred and violence.