Mother of Srebrenica

THE UNSPEAKABLE

Pathos of Srebrenica and of its photographs

Every speech about the Unspeakable is aimless and meaningless. However, since the Unspeakable represents a secret component of his being and speech his destiny, a man, throughout his history, builted an indirect strategy of mediated speech about the Unspeakable. (…) Language appears insufficient and meaningless, its metaphors retrocide in front of tragedy from which it cannot be saved by mediation, its symbols run in front of rawness of the truth, appearing incorrect. Discourse and logicism of language appear as a superficial formality. The silence that remains after Srebrenica is significant. One photograph of Srebrenica- photograph of a woman with stoned face- deprives the ability of speech to its viewer. That photograph, made by Almin Zrno, like no other photograph or discourse, reflects only the unspeakable about Srebrenica.

The woman in the photograph is a living person- but everything we call life has abandoned her. She is just a mere remainder of ephemeral and material world. Even her clothes are materially literal, where forms of decoration and print dominate, just like the deep and tense lines dominate her utterly shriveled face. Her life has collapsed and immersed into her. Immersed are all the feelings, pain, thoughts and with them each sound and light of the outside world- that woman is no longer there. The viewer discovers horror, that becomes his own: „Woman with binded head scarf, with stoned face, has no eyes…“ In her, in her world, there is no light, it can no longer reach her. The entire world, the entire life, has collapsed and immersed, it faded inside that woman, her interior. (…). Undoubtedly, the untitled photograph by Almin Zrno of a nameless woman from Srebrenica represents an anthological photograph of a global significance. The photograph interprets a specific fate of an individual, of Srebrenica and Bosnia in it. It simultaneously presents a timeless pathos, a tragedy that transcends rational interpretations of the world.

Text from Fehim Hadžimuhamedović.