When is a memorial site a sacred space, and when is it a civic space? At the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial and Cemetery, the distinction is admirably clear. On one side of the road, all signs point to the sacred: there are gravestones, a mosque, and a generally somber atmosphere. On the other side of the road, where the museum is located, the vernacular design implies civic use. In this way, visitors are given cues as to what behavior is appropriate in what space without having to be explicitly instructed.
Thus far, however, the memorial and cemetery are most often visited by grieving relatives or by dignitaries on anniversary commemorations. Since the war, few Muslims live in the area around Srebrenica, and the cemetery seems to mean little to neighboring Serbs.
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Design of Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial and Cemetery
The memorial has two parts, divided by a road. On one side of the road is the cemetery, which is shaped like the petals of a flower. On the other side is the Srebrenica Memorial Room, a building that was a battery factory in the 1980s and the headquarters of the Dutch UN battalion in the 1990s.
The plan for the memorial and cemetery was developed in close cooperation with the surviving family members and victims’ groups, particularly the Mothers of Srebrenica, a loose knit victims’ association with chapters in Srebrenica, Sarajevo, and Tuzla. The idea for a Memorial Room was first proposed by Lord Ashdown, the fourth High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina, after he visited the Holocaust Room of the Imperial War Museum in London. The room was designed by the Sarajevo-based :arch
Architectural Cooperative and consists of two black towers: one presenting a film on the massacre, and the other showcasing the stories and personal items of twenty victims. “The tops of the towers are closed, evoking a sense of loss, the darkened spaces seeming like voids from which the narratives of July 1995 descend,” wrote the members of :arch. Both the cemetery and memorial are incomplete. Each year, additional victims are identified and reburied. The cemetery will not assume its final look until authorities and families are satisfied that all possible victims have been buried.
In November 2008, the Memorial Center at Srebrenica-Potočari announced a design competition for the second phase of construction of the memorial center.
References
“Srebrenica finally buries its dead.” BBC News, March 31, 2003.
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The Memorial Center Srebrenica-Potoêari (official site).
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Competition document “for development of conceptual architectural design for the second phase of construction of the Memorial Center in the complex of Battery Factory in Potoêari, Srebrenica.”
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