Navigating the Memory-Art-Activism Nexus: Developing an Analytical Tool Grounded in Artistic Responses to the Srebrenica Genocide

This article develops a concise and generalisable analytical tool for examining the relationship between memory, art and activism. While scholarship has extensively explored each of these domains, their intersection remains conceptually fragmented and marked by overlapping terminology. Drawing on three artistic responses to the Srebrenica genocide, the article proposes a typology of memory art, alternative commemorative art and memory artivism. This tool is developed through an in-depth analysis of the nomadic monument ŠTO TE NEMA, the commemorative performance '8372' (and its variations), and the documentary drama 'My Thousand Year Old Land (A Song for BiH)'. These works differ in their modes of participation, sensory engagement, political intention and commemorative strategy. A definitional table clarifies the distinctions between the three categories, which are then examined through the combined analysis of artistic intentions and qualitative audience reception. By showing how these artistic memory practices illuminate broader dynamics of participation, ritualisation, implication, and agonistic intervention, the article demonstrates the analytical value of the tool beyond the Srebrenica genocide. The result is a clearer, more empirically grounded framework for understanding not only how art represents the past, but also how it actively shapes the politics of public memory.