Not in the Forecast

Not in the Forecast (18.4.2025) was the final group exhibition/event/party carried out at the end of the artist-in-residency program Operation Nova: Re-imagining Cultural Spaces in a New European Context at Lumbardhi Foundation (Prizren, Kosovo, April-May 2025). It was carried on in three venues (Kurshllus Studio, Kino Lumbardhi and Radio Kolektiv) and displayed works from Maja Bojanić, Antonela Solenički, Una Štalcar-Furač and Francisco Tomsich. Check HERE the curatorial text. Reports from all artists on the six-weeks residency period can be read HERE, while Francisco Tomsich’s final report works as a detailed description of his working process in the two pieces presented in the show: Waiting Exercises (Acts I-II, and beginning of Act III, made in collaboration with Somer Spat) and Let’s take a walk, I will tell you a story about those who died, and we can talk about my art (artist’s film from the Silent Works series, single channel, monochrome, silent, 14’10’, made in collaboration with Karanfile Haxhi). Check a detailed report by Flutura Balaj, including interviews with all participants, HERE.

Let’s take a walk, I will tell you a story about those who died, and we can talk about my art screened on the Open Air Cinema of Lumbardhi Foundation at the opening of Not in the Forecast, 18.4.2025. Photo: Karanfile Haxhi.

Let’s take a walk, I will tell you a story about those who died, and we can talk about my art, fragment.

Waiting Exercises (Act I). The First Act of Waiting Exercises was developed as a set of actions, drawings, collaborations and conversations centred around the construction of a waiting (non-)monument using discarded pieces of wood and mimicking some informal anarchitectural strategies seen in the streets of Prizren which establish strong dialogues with previous works of mine using assembled wood as Icarus (2006-), Tempel der Medusa (2012) and La Niña Caballo (2025). Check Francisco Tomsich’s Instagram publications during the working process HERE.

Waiting Exercises (Act I). The wood assemblage “Pacient” at Kurshllus Studio, Prizren, waiting for its re-location and being using as a meeting point. Photos: Francisco Tomsich and Fatih Kepa.

Waiting Exercises (Act II). Photos: Elmedina Arapi.

“The Second Act was staged on 18.4.2025. Kurshllus Studio was designated as the venue where the final event was set to start at 19:00. Organizers, artists, friends and the general public gathered in front of the showcase where the sculpture was displayed. While we were waiting, I asked some people about putting a name on it (it evidently represents a human figure sitting), and Ares proposed «Pacient». At 19:45, Azem came to pick it up, and Somer and I opened the studio and deposited the sculpture on Azem’s two-wheeled, human-powered wooden trailer. I spotted Azem in my first days in Prizren: he would wait, seated on his vehicle in front of Destill, all day long if needed, for someone to require his services. It is relatively cheap and reliable, and very convenient in a city in which many locations are not reachable by car and the municipality carries out garbage collections using horses. Azem took the sculpture on a approx. 220 m journey taking Pushkatarët street down to the river, crossing the “blue bridge” (Ura e Kaltert) and from the other side of Remzi Ademaj street into a short section of Farkëtarët to enter Lumbardhi’s courtyard. He was followed by some of us. It was a procession of sorts, of course, but Azem was simply doing his job, and we had to move the sculpture. We did not invite the public to assist to a performance, and many assistants just stood in front of Kurshllus finishing their drinks.” (Francisco Tomsich: Prizren Report II).

Waiting Exercises (Beginning of Act III). Photos: Kurshllus Studio and Francisco Tomsich

“Once in Lumbardhi, we deposited the sculpture somewhere (Azem’s trailer would not pass in between the open cinema’s rows of seats), paid him, thanked him and said goodbye. And the event went on. But then the Third Act started too. The sculpture will remain in Lumbardhi’s courtyard, but the courtyard (and the whole premises) will go through a process of complete renovation which will start very soon and could last as long as it should (we are in the Balkans). Lumbardhi won’t be for some time (and may never be again, at least in the same way) the place of encounters and cultural cooking we experienced. I will remember it all, and I will wonder how is Pacient doing. Maybe somebody will visit it and document its waiting (and witnessing) position in the new conditions. Maybe some cat will find shelter on it. Maybe somebody will find another name for it. It may be dismantled again, to fulfill some other function or functions. It may be despised, disliked or worshiped. It may disappear, it may resist, it may metamorphose. There might not be an end for this act.” (Francisco Tomsich: Prizren Report II).