In October 2024, Kuma International welcomed artist Aida Šehović and architect Arna Mačkić for a residency dedicated to the development of Cups of Memory, a collaborative research project exploring the public memory of the Srebrenica Genocide within Dutch history and public space.
Developed through artistic and spatial research, the project critically examines the absence of Srebrenica from dominant European narratives and reflects on how collective remembrance is shaped, represented, and transmitted within contemporary public consciousness. Through their collaboration, Šehović and Mačkić explore possible ways of creating more inclusive and responsible approaches to public memory and commemoration.
During their residency in Sarajevo, the artists used Kuma’s space as a site for research, dialogue, exchange, and reflection, engaging with local cultural workers, researchers, and ongoing conversations surrounding memory, genocide, and post-war societies.
Arna Mačkić, co-founder of Studio L A in Amsterdam, works at the intersection of architecture, social justice, and public space, with a particular focus on accessibility, refugee housing, and the long-term consequences of war. Aida Šehović is the founder of ŠTO TE NEMA, a non-profit organization dedicated to imagining and building a world without genocide. Her participatory monument dedicated to the Srebrenica Genocide travelled to 15 cities internationally between 2006 and 2020.
“Sharing time together during our residency at Kuma, in a space devoted entirely to our research, has been both profoundly inspiring and deeply productive.”
— Aida Šehović & Arna Mačkić
With this residency, Kuma officially began developing its Residency Program as a space dedicated to long-term artistic research, exchange, and critical engagement with memory, migration, post-conflict societies, and contemporary social realities.