Some stories begin with silence. The momentum of silence lingers after you pass through one city and see people “pushing through” their everyday lives, while, somewhere in the background, the painful memories glimmer. Such silence created “Što te nema” (Why Are You Not Here), a nomadic monument by artist Aida Šehović, which tells the story of Srebrenica across the world.
When she was exiled from her birthplace, Banja Luka, as a 15-year-old girl in the middle of the war, Aida was forced to seek a home in different parts of the world. Turkey, Germany, and, in the end, the United States, although each address carried an opportunity for a new life, one question deeply troubled her: What does it mean to belong somewhere?
She never thought she would find her answer through art, and not any art, but the art that concerns all of us, mostly Bosnians and Herzegovinians.
This is how the “Što te nema” Monument emerged. Although it doesn’t have a single trace of classic monumentality or stony coldness, “Što te nema” holds just as much weight. It is composed of thousands of fildžans (coffee cups), each with a first and last name, marking each person killed in Srebrenica. Twenty years after she started this story, Aida spoke to Klix.ba about how, from a simple object, she created a monument that today belongs to one entire nation.
When crimes happen, why is the world standing still?
Speaking about her beginnings, Aida recalled how her entire life changed when the war broke out. After she was displaced from her home and country, she started a new life in different places. She became a refugee.
“Although I was just a child, I was grown enough to understand that something horrible was happening without anyone’s explanation. I could not understand why the adults were fighting one another, killing one another. All those atrocities were taking place in Bosnia, while life around me continued. I asked myself why we don’t do something and how it is possible that the entire world doesn’t stop when a crime is happening somewhere? Aida began her story.
These questions grew stronger and deeper over time, awakening anger and defiance in Aida, which she didn’t know how to handle.
“When we visited Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2004 for the first time after the displacement, I came across a story by a woman from Srebrenica who said she was missing her husband the most when she ‘puts the coffee on’. She had no one to drink it with – she said. That moved me deeply. This was the tradition I myself grew up with. Through every relocation, new cities, cultures, and languages, drinking Bosnian coffee from fildžan was a symbol of my identity, memories, and a reminder of where I come from. My parents nurtured that tradition all my life, and it meant ‘I am home’.”
This is how she came up with the idea of collecting fildžans as a sign of solidarity with the people, and particularly with the women of Srebrenica.
“I addressed the Association ‘Women of Srebrenica’, which was led by the late Hajra Ćatić at the time. I immediately received her support. In 2006, as a student and an artist, I arrived in Sarajevo over the summer and arranged those 923 fildžans for the first time in Baščaršija,” Aida said.
Part of the performance was filling the fildžans with fresh Bosnian coffee, never to be drunk, just as it was for many women from Srebrenica, including mothers, sisters, wives… The name for the monument was borrowed from the poem by Jadranka Stojaković titled “Što te nema” (Why Are You Not Here?), that one question that gives you chills just at the mention of it.
“The news spread fast, and people started to arrive to see what it was about. Many of them brought their own fildžans and placed them. Some just remained silent, others made a dua and observed, but a mix of emotions hung in the air. That is when I realized the power of art. It can ‘open’ people and help them share their own traumas. We all do it between our four walls, but we are rarely able to expose them publicly, in front of total strangers. It was clear that I must simply continue doing this,” Aida said.
City by city. Square by square. Nation by nation. From 2006 until 2020, the monument did not stop traveling. Stockholm,New York, Istanbul, Venice, The Hague, Zürich, Geneva, and Toronto are just some of the places where it came to life. Hundreds of tiny cups are arranged on the asphalt, a sight that is difficult to ignore.
“Reactions were different, just like cities, but the idea was a true unity. The shared solidarity and empathy, collective memory.The way to jointly say ‘no’ to crimes and to tell the world that what took place, and what is taking place today, is not okay,” Aida noted.
“Not all of the killed had a mezar (grave), but everyone had a fildžan with their name on it”
When “Što te nema” was set up in Srebrenica in 2020, on the ground where men and young boys were separated from wives, it counted for over 8,372 fildžans. It was also the 25th anniversary of the genocide, and Aida realized that this moment would mark a turning point.
“It was the COVID-19 pandemic; visits were limited, and 90% of people who arranged fildžans were from Srebrenica. It was clear that not all of the killed would have their mezar, but they had a fildžan with their name on it. The monument took on a completely different dimension, and it no longer made sense for it to travel and touch other countries’ soil. It was the last time it was presented in its living form,” Aida explained.
Today, the monument is awaiting its permanent version, which is in process.
“The next stage of ‘Što te nema’ is so-called ‘Cups of Memory’. It is a collaboration with architect Arna Mačkić, originally from Herzegovina, through which we will design a contemporary monument that will again be interactive and participatory, but will have its permanent place. The first draft is expected next year. That is all I can say for now,” Aida said.
In the meantime, the documentary film of the same name was also created, which had its world premiere at the 2024 Sarajevo Film Festival. This year, on July 11th, the movie will be displayed at the neighborhood cinema in Grbavica at 7:00 p.m.
“Since its world premiere, the movie ‘Što te nema’ has been shown 14 times. The audience was very emotional every time. A mix of shock, sadness, pain, and memory. Although the main focus is on Srebrenica, the film successfully intertwines multiple stories, allowing the audience to connect with it on a deeper level. People from Srebrenica gave me the most compliments, from Nura Begović, who plays in a movie, to Hasan Hasanović, who works at the Srebrenica Memorial Center. They said this was the best movie about Srebrenica to ever be made, and it means a lot to me,” Aida said.
Year by year, as the project grew, so did Aida. When she looks back, she admits this idea required “a lot of courage and madness.”
“As I was studying and working on this project at the same time, one of my Professors asked me: ‘Everything looks great, but how will you move on to another topic?’ This caused me a great deal of stress. A pressure I didn’t know how to defend myself against or how to handle. It was clear to me that professors did not know how to handle my work,” she said.
Aida gave that answer to herself by persisting in what she believed in for twenty years.
“When I remember the beginning, I realize how brave I was to take on this project. For someone who is not from Srebrenica, it was slippery ground, which required moral and ethical responsibility. This wasn’t my story. My father is alive, and I have not experienced what it means to lose male family members. But I did not give up. That was the beauty of youth and naivety, when we are filled with ideas. I thought I could change the world. Today, twenty years later, I think the same, but I am much more aware of all obstacles,” said Aida honestly.
Violence is always a choice, and wrong values dehumanize the world.
Today, through her own organization, the artist also organizes educational classes and workshops across Bosnia and Herzegovina and Europe. As she emphasized, the most important audience is young people.
“For a long time, I believed that the youth do not care. But I realized I was wrong. They actually know more than we think. They do care, but feel helpless. The society left them no choice. They convinced them into complacency, and that apathy is a normal occurrence. That, if something is not happening directly to us or in our country, then it doesn’t concern us. Therefore, we found ourselves in a position to calmly observe horrible things, like today’s genocide in Palestine, like genocide that took place in Srebrenica, or any other crime in the world,” Aida said honestly, and continued:
“It is not normal to wake up one morning, and the first thing you see on social media is killing children in Gaza. It is not normal that there are monuments, graffiti, and dedications to war criminals in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that, despite the facts from the past, we are not all learning about the same history. All of this has dehumanized society, and the young cannot cope with it,” our interviewee points out.
Through her work, the artist wishes to inspire younger generations to stand up to wrong values that rule the world and to help them be the change they want to see.
“While ‘Što te nema’ traveled the world, I noticed something interesting. Not a child has broken a single fildžan. There were situations when they came with their parents, without any explanation, they would go to the boxes, take a fildžan, and place it next to the others. We forgot that honest love, innocence, and empathy hide in all of us. Violence is not something we are born with; it is something taught, which in the end turns into a choice,” Aida emphasized.
New York or Sarajevo: “I missed the humanity the most; everything is programmed in the West
Three years ago, after living in New York for a longer period, Aida decided to return to where she belongs, her homeland. It was, she said, one of the best life decisions.
“It was completely spontaneous. While making a movie, I found myself staring at a dot and wondering, ‘What am I doing in New York?’ That is one huge city that truly taught me a lot, and I will always carry it in my heart. But I knew I belonged in Bosnia, and I felt an overwhelming urge to come back. At the start, that decision was illogical to everyone around me, including my parents. I had no job waiting for me here, nor anything to live off of. I came with two suitcases and a full heart. Today, I can say that was one of the best decisions I have ever made,” said Aida.
She revealed the biggest differences between life in the West and the one she is leading today in Bosnia.
“What I was missing in New York, and what most of the Western countries lack, is humanity. Everything revolves around material things, career, and “what you achieved.’ When I recall my life there, I realize that everything had to be programmed. I had to plan a month in advance just to see my best friend. There was no freedom, only plans and obligations. It is great, but not at the price of living. I see that materialism did not take over here. Beauty is in little things – to take a walk after work, meet with close people, have a coffee, and be lazy if you want. Heart and soul are filled since I am in Bosnia and Herzegovina; I am simply happy,” she said.
Although she grew up in Banja Luka, returning there was never an option. Sarajevo grew on her. She built a new life there and met her husband.
“Banja Luka, the city as I remember it, no longer exists. It is a sad fact. I changed, and I have not processed my traumas. That is why I chose Sarajevo. I think it is important to see the world, but that in the end, everyone should return to their homes. If everyone acted like that, Bosnia and Herzegovina would be the best country in the world,” she emphasized.
As the conversation was nearing an end, Aida returned to where it all began – people. Because “Što te nema” wouldn’t exist without them.
“’Što te nema’ cannot exist without people. It is their monument, not mine. I am just its guardian. Art, just like sports and music, is here to unite us above all and to initiate changes. Meanwhile, not a single change happens suddenly or overnight, but it happens through many little things that become great deeds when we unite with others. If we take a fildžan, it is simply a fildžan, but if thousands of fildžans are in one place, then that is the answer to anyone who thought they would erase us,” Aida states.
For years, “Što te nema” is a work which in a special way tells its, but mostly our, painful story in a special way. It’s not a classical, stone monument that people visit and forget, but one that has been repeatedly placed in the hands of the people, carrying someone’s name. Someone’s loss.
The story that began in the silence of a rebuilt home, in the scent of coffee with no one to drink it with, grew into a call directed to all of us – not to look away, not to remain silent, and to remember. Because, as long as there are those who will fill at least one fildžan, not a single soul out of eight thousand three hundred and seventy-two will be alone, Klix.ba writes.
