Aida Šehović.
(Photo: Adnan Šaćiragić)
When Bosnia and Herzegovina declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1992, ethno-national divisions plunged the country into war. Violence erupted among the three principle identity groups of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks), Bosnian Serbs, and Croats. In July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces invaded the UN Safe Area of Srebrenica, were thousands of Bosniaks had sought refuge from the violence. Women and girls were transported out of the area, but the remaining 8,372 men and boys were systematically killed. In 2006, the International Court of Justice officially ruled that the events at Srebrenica qualified as genocide.
Today, ethnic divisions continue to divide the region. Bosnian Serb and Serbian leaders also continue to deny the Srebrenica Genocide. In response to this denial, Bosnian-American artist Aida Šehović created ŠTO TE NEMA [lit. “Why are you not here?”], a nomadic monument commemorating the 8,372 Bosnian Muslims who died in the genocide in Srebrenica in July 1995. Šehović has been collecting the porcelain cups traditionally used for coffee service in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the goal of having one cup for each victim. For the past 13 years, on July 11th, the anniversary of the genocide, Šehović has organized the monument in the public square of a new city around the world, in partnership with local communities. Passersby are invited to fill cups with coffee and leave them in the square, undrunk, in memory of the victims.
Today, ethnic divisions continue to divide the region. Bosnian Serb and Serbian leaders also continue to deny the Srebrenica Genocide. In response to this denial, Bosnian-American artist Aida Šehović created ŠTO TE NEMA [lit. “Why are you not here?”], a nomadic monument commemorating the 8,372 Bosnian Muslims who died in the genocide in Srebrenica in July 1995. Šehović has been collecting the porcelain cups traditionally used for coffee service in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the goal of having one cup for each victim. For the past 13 years, on July 11th, the anniversary of the genocide, Šehović has organized the monument in the public square of a new city around the world, in partnership with local communities. Passersby are invited to fill cups with coffee and leave them in the square, undrunk, in memory of the victims.
For the past 13 years, on July 11th, the anniversary of the genocide, Šehović has organized the monument in the public square of a new city around the world, in partnership with local communities. Passersby are invited to fill cups with coffee and leave them in the square, undrunk, in memory of the victims. |
ŠTO TE NEMA - Boston, 2018 (8 minutes) is a short documentary about the 11th annual iteration of the monument at Boston’s iconic Copley Square in 2016. Directed by Rialda Zukić.
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Aida Šehović (Bosnia and Herzegovina) is an artist and founder of the ŠTO TE NEMA nomadic monument. The project began as a one-time performance with a presentation of the first 923 collected porcelain cups (fildžani) in 2006. Since then, ŠTO TE NEMA has evolved into a participatory community art project organized in close collaboration with Bosnian diaspora communities in a different city each year. For the past 13 years, ŠTO TE NEMA has traveled throughout Europe and the United States, and currently consists of more than 7,500 donated cups (fildžani). This year Šehović worked with Bosnian diaspora communities in Switzerland to bring ŠTO TE NEMA to Helvetia Platz in Zürich on July 11, 2018. Aida Šehović was born in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and like thousands of fellow Bosnian Muslims, fled her country due to threat of systematic violence and persecution in 1992. She lived as a refugee in Turkey and Germany before immigrating to the United States in 1997. Šehović earned her BA from the University of Vermont in 2002 and her MFA from Hunter College in 2010. She received the ArtsLink Award in 2006, the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship in 2007, the Emerging Artist Fellowship from Socrates Sculpture Park in 2013, and the Fellowship for Utopian Practice from Culture Push in 2017. She was an artist-in-residence at the Santa Fe Art Institute, the Vermont Studio Center, the Grand Central Art Center, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Her work has been exhibited extensively including at Flux Factory, Socrates Sculpture Park, and Queens Museum in New York City, where the artist is based.
