MONUMENT

2020 - present

Cups of Memory is a collaboration between architect Arna Mačkić (Studio L A) and artist Aida Šehović (ŠTO TE NEMA), both survivors of the Bosnian War (1992–1995). Emerging from the foundation of the ŠTO TE NEMA monument, the project extends its methods (ritual, participation, and care) into an ongoing search for a permanent form. 

Centering the voices of survivors, descendants, and witnesses, and drawing on rituals central to the monument—carrying, coffee-making, holding, inheriting, listening, pouring, praying, storing, unpacking, washing—Cups of Memory gathers lived experience into a site of encounter, reflection, and healing.

People wearing masks receiving donations outside a brick building with a sign that reads 'MUSEUM WOMEN SOBA REMENCA MEMORIAL ROOM'.

carrying

Three women sitting on cobblestone street, engaged in an activity with many small cups and silver containers arranged on the ground, possibly a ritual or cultural practice.

listening

People serving coffee outdoors on a city sidewalk, with tall buildings and a bus stop in the background.

coffee making

Person pouring a brown beverage from a metal pitcher into paper cups arranged on a paved surface.

pouring

People gathered outdoors, sitting and crouching around small cups and containers, possibly for a street food or communal activity, with buildings and other individuals in the background.

washing

People gathered on a city street, kneeling and observing a memorial composed of numerous candles and small objects.

inheriting

Two men crouching down with hands raised near face, looking at a table covered in coins, in a busy indoor setting with people standing around.

reflecting

A view of a canal with a ferry boat passing by, seen through an iron gate and a stone archway. On the boat, there are stacked plastic storage containers and a covered object.

storing

People browsing and inspecting a large collection of decorated ceramic cups displayed on a table outdoors in a park setting, with trees and a building in the background.

un:packing

2006 - 2020

What began as a one-time public performance by Bosnian-American artist Aida Šehović grew into a participatory monument to the Srebrenica genocide, was reenacted each year on 11 July in public squares around the world. From its inception in 2006 in Sarajevo to its final iteration in 2020 at the Srebrenica Memorial Center, ŠTO TE NEMA brought thousands of people together in collective mourning and care. Built from fildžani collected for each of the 8,372 genocide victims, the monument took shape cup by cup as volunteers, families, and diaspora communities assembled the work by pouring Bosnian coffee that remained undrunk—an annual symbolic ritual of remembrance and resistance to the normalization of mass atrocities.

Between 2006 and 2020, the ŠTO TE NEMA monument was presented in 15 cities: Sarajevo (2006), New York (2007), Tuzla (2008), The Hague (2009), Stockholm (2010), Burlington (2011), Istanbul (2012), New York (2013), Toronto (2014), Geneva (2015), Boston (2016), Chicago (2017), Zurich (2018), Venice (2019), and Srebrenica (2020).