First International LunchTime Summit

A coming together of collective initiatives and socially engaged art in 16+8+? cities (September 26th, 2003).

Organized by 16 Beaver Group, New York for:

The Common Project
http://www.16beavergroup.org/w-l/intro.htm#common

Get rid of yourself Exhibition
Artist Collectives and Collaborating Artists in the USA
ACC Weimar, and Stiftung Federkiel, Halle 14 Leipzig, Germany.
July 26th until October 12th, 2003.
http://www.acc-weimar.de/

24/7 Exhibition
Contemporary Art Center (CAC), Vilnius, Lithuania.
September 12th until November 2nd, 2003.
http://www.cac.lt/

 


Side 1 of Vilnius Invite



Side 2 of invite "What is to Be Done?"


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Contents:
-2. Short list of cities, relative time chart, and actual local meal times.
-1. The very basic idea
0. Arrivals/Departures
1. How it might work
2. Full descriptions, and locations for participating cities, groups,
and individuals as of today [alphabetical by city]
(there is room for more groups up until September 26th, if you want to participate, just send an email to peterlasch@16beavergroup.org)
3. General Call for Colombia 3 by Culture&Conflict Group


-2. Short list of cities, etc:
----------------------------------------------------------

For times, if confused, check:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

-For relative time chart, Time Zero will be 12pm (lunchtime) in NY. The cities on short list are arranged by time-zone sections, from earliest to latest.

-LMT stands for Local Meal Time.
- [ask local contact] means last minute decisions are still being made. so if you want last minute info on that city‚s meal, it‚s fastest to write directly to contact person listed in item 2 under that city)

- all meals are on Sept 26th, except Manila (check below)

 9am - Los Angeles (USA) [LMT: ask local contact]
 9am - Vancouver (Canada) [LMT: ask local contact]

11am - Austin, TX (USA) [LMT lunch/picnic: ask local contact]
11am - Chicago (USA) [LMT?] [LMT: ask local contact]
11am - Mexico City (Mexico) [LMT: 8pm-10pm]

12pm - Concord, NH (USA) [LMT: ask local contact]
12pm - Durham, NC (USA) [LMT: 5:30pm to 7pm]
12pm - New York (USA) [LMT dinner: ask local contact]
12pm - San Juan (Puerto Rico) [LMT: 12pm-?]
12pm - Toronto (Canada) [LMT: 12pm-?]

 1pm - Tucumán (Argentina) [LMT 1:30pm-?]

 5pm - London (England) [LMT: 7pm-?]

 6pm - Berlin (Germany) [LMT: 5:45pm-?]
 6pm - Bologna (Italy) [LMT: All-day fasting]
 6pm - Ljubljana (Slovenia) [LMT: ask local contact]
 6pm - Nove Ligure (Italy) [LMT: All-day fasting]
 6pm - Paris (France) [LMT: ask local contact]
 6pm - Rome (Italy) [LMT: All-day fasting]
 6pm - Skopje (Macedonia) [LMT 11am to 1:30pm]
 6pm - Weimar (Germany) [not confirmed]

 7pm - Vilnius (Lithuania) [LMT: ask local contact]

 9pm - Yerevan (Armenia) [LMT] [no contact given]

12am - Krasnoyarsk (Russia) [LMT dinner: ask local contact]
12am - Manila (Philippines) [LMT 7pm-9pm, Sept 17th + 26th follow-up]



-1. The very basic idea
----------------------------------------------------------
- we all meet and eat in various cities, at different times on the same day (September 26th, 2003)
- we share an interest in socially engaged work, cultural production, art, politics, and the conviction that something(s) need to be done
- we use the month following our first summit to produce a book (16pages/city) which is to document the day and serve as a springboard for future actions, exchanges, and collaborations. the book will be published in early 2004, while videos, photos, texts, and other materials may be used to organize screenings, near future events, web-pages, which are coordinated in the various cities.


0. Arrivals/Departures
----------------------------------------------------------
Lunchtime -- the time, around the middle of the day, when lunch is usually eaten

Summit -- a meeting between heads of government or other high ranking officials to discuss a matter of great importance

Lunchtime Summit - A meeting or encounter between people, around the middle of the day, in which matters of great importance are presented or discussed in the midst of eating.

Departure:
Lenin's description of imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism now seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy. After the collapse of the Soviet bloc the total spread of unregulated global capitalism is seen as inevitable. With this spread, a third of the world1s population lives on less than $2 a day and the poorest countries in the world owe a $422 billion debt that can never be paid. Yet, events in Seattle, Genoa, Cancun, and elsewhere show that global capitalism can be resisted.

The world as we know it today will change and must, but how? If change is necessary and inevitable, what questions and in their turn what solutions will prompt these changes?  How can we provoke significant change and can any real shift happen under our present system? How can we prevent social change from turning into a situation where the same structures of power are re-established with different players at the top?

Arrival:
Summits have existed historically to bring people together to discuss and map out possible courses and solutions to great pressing issues, great problems.  But often in these summits, the great problems are in advance, as the subject at hand. Consequently, they run the risk of assuming certainties, shared ground without taking into account that the very questions may differ for the participating parties.  Another problem found with summits is that they propose and sometimes agree to solutions, resolutions, peace plans, road maps that are unrealistic or beyond the reach of the parties involved.  Moreover, summits often leave the carrying out of action or possible solutions to others, it is often top-down.

Rather than overstate our summit as a radical act of revolutionary politics, or propose solutions which overreach our own capabilities.  We propose instead to embark on a new type of summit, possibly a summit of the everyday.  Instead of a summit comprised of high-ranking officials, or even heads of states, we can consider this a sort of poor man‚s summit. A summit that does not take place at a resort in Helsinki or Camp David, but in the very spaces we use, work in, visit, live in.  These spaces could be public or private, living rooms, lunch rooms, cafeterias, university halls, cafes, museums, parks, airplanes, elevators. In addition, our summit gives space for actions as well as thought. Why privelege the talking part of the lunch over the eating part? What and how and if we eat or work with food, with "lunch", "breakfast", "dinner" may re-direct our attention to the revolutionary potential in food itself.

For this summit, we draw on the power of food and 3the lunch2, not only in its ability to bring people together, but also for the great possibilities and links it offers to the great social questions of our time (hunger, food insecurity, malnourishment, unfair or exploitive labor practices, pollution, waste management, environmental questions. Moreover, working with food allows one to also re-think hospitality, one of those original institutions of politics.

As a final note of arrival here, we suggest that as much as we are interested in the questions, solutions,  and actions participants of this summit consider/propose/write/execute, we hope that there is care also taken to consider how?  How this Lunchtime Summit might in a modest way mix our revolutionary ambitions with our everyday needs for collectivity, for thought, for fun, for food?


2. Participating cities, groups, individuals (alphabetical by city):
-----------------------------------------------------------

Although our original goal was to have meals in 16 cities, we now have 24 and are open for more.

If you wish to participate, or know someone who might be interested, please contact Peter Lasch at
peterlasch@16beavergroup.org

-----------------------------------------------------------

AUSTIN, TX (USA)

Event: A Plebeian's Poolside Picnic to Ponder the Platitudes of the Political Time and location: contact Alia

Alia Hasan-Khan and Mubbashir Rizvi will be pondering the question of "What is to be done" in relation to the current bombings and violence occurring in Iraq and other parts or the world.

The menu will consist of a Pakistani-style melange of Eastern exotic and "explosive" foods.

Contact:
Alia Hasan-Khan
alia009@yahoo.com

-----------------------------------------------------------

BERLIN (GERMANY)

Event: Taking it to the streets
Late Lunch/Early Dinner
Time and location:
The streets of Berlin (write to Geoff for more info)

Brief description:
On monday, September 22, one delegate surrendered his kitchen to an initial brainstorming meeting. Negotiations ended with all parties agreeing on the following resolution:

At quarter to six p.m. on friday the 26th of September, the Berlin summit will take its drinks to the streets, indulging in sausages, beer, and other street food. It was resolved not to provide food or create a process that merely talks about talking, but rather to go to where the food already is, to observe eating and talking where they occur in the city. Hungry for shared time, space, and relationships, the committee will collect stories and experiences, taking turns and detours wherever they might lead.

Contact:
Geoff Garrison
geof@thing.net

Participants:
Heimo Lattner
zimprichova@web.de
matti@asia.com
mattwillard@earthlink.net

-----------------------------

CHICAGO

Event name or concept?
Breakfast? Lunch? Dinner?
Time and location

Brief description:

Contact:
Paige Sarlin
psarli@artic.edu

Participants:
?Emily Forman (Counter Productive Industries)
conductionf@hotmail.com
?Brett Bloom (Temporary Services)
nobudget@megsinet.net

------------------

CONCORD, NH (USA)

Event name or concept?
Breakfast? Lunch? Dinner?
Time and location

Brief description:

Contact:
Mike Esch
Openheadmedia@cs.com

-------------------

DURHAM, NC (USA)

Event: Southern Teatime Gathering #1
Teatime
Time and location:
6pm-8pm @ home of Peter Lasch and Esther Gabara
1500 Duke University Road #M2B, Durham, NC.

Brief description:
The idea of this radical tea gathering is to create the first event of an open collective in the making. Local and visiting scholars, artists, groupies, and anyone who is interested will plot a series of events for the near future. The only consistent agenda of these radical tea drinkers is to find or create an alternative social space where we can develop modes of address other than those produced by the lecture hall, the shopping mall, and the speedy highway.

Contact:
Peter Lasch
peterlasch@16beavergroup.org

Participants:
Esther Gabara
egabara@duke.edu
Octavian Esanu
oe@duke.edu
Laurel Fredricksen
Michael Hardt
Dmitri K
Josh Gibson
Beatriz
Kristine
Patrick Dougherty
list

----------------------------

KRASNOYARSK, SIBERIA (RUSSIA)

Event: 16 chairs / 16 speeches
Dinner
Time and location:
Krasnoyarsk Museum Center

Brief Description:

Krasnoyarsk Museum Center would like to join 16Beaver group Projects by organizing a concurrent meal with you on September 26, 2003, there will be a discussion on the question \"What is to be done?\", according to the data of questionnaire \"What is to be done? Questions of the 21 century\" (project of Susan Kelly, Stephen Morton and Leena Kakko). In addition to this, Dina Ignatova & DINA LSD performance group will present a dance-performance with 16 chairs!

This year Krasnoyarsk Museum Center is 16 years old. Also this year the V Krasnoyarsk Museum Biennale took place, during which a project .What is to be done? The question in the 21 century. was presented. These two important events have become a reason to  participate in this 16Beaver project. The key-topic will be the realization of the museum within the question/answer philosophy. What is the purpose of our museum existing? What are the evidence o f its functional existence? What is the future, and .what is to be done?. at least! 16 . is the symbol of fullness, it is the number of measure. We throw 16 replies (from the responses from the project .What is to be done?  The question in the 21 century., made by Susan, Stephen and Leena) into images, denoting them during our performance, associating them with 16 things.

Brief description: agenda: - tie up the loose ends: brief resumes, verbatim record by DINA LSD performance group. chair is the symbol of stability. A chair has 4 legs, but if one is removed the chair won.t keep the attributive function, it will not be able to be a seat. Be sitting on the chair means be thinking over. The 16- and  chair- symbols combine to the united will . to answer the questions. Under each of 14 chairs there is a quotation from a response and an associated with it thing, one performer (Dina) will be moving (dancing). She makes a step, the quotation is announced, the chair is removed and instead of it only the quotation is left. And we will do the same with all the 14 chairs. At least only 2 .free. chairs are left, on them 2 performers are sitting . a girl with a mouth-organ and a boy with the Lenin.s book .What is to be done?. So, 2 people, and 2 chairs . they are alone (tet-a-tet) with the questions, and there  is the world around them, which is contained in the last speech. - and it is silence.    - closing session: dinner and .free-talks..   

Contact:
Dina Ignatova
yellow_angel@fromru.com

Participants:
Valentina Bondareva
Dina Ignatova & DINA LSD performance group (Dina I., Vasya V. and Alena S.)
Michail Shubskiy (the director of the museum)
Sergey Kovalevskiy (chief curator of the V Krasnoyarsk museum biennale)
Tatiana Uleyskaya
Tatyana Shirikova
Irina Gurova
Marina Brovtsina
some partners of the museum
some students
(art-critics and interpreters)



------------------------------
LJUBLJANA (SLOVENIA)

Event name or concept?
Breakfast? Lunch? Dinner?
Time and location:
P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E Museum, Gallery P76

Brief description:

Participants:
Tadej Pogacar
tpogacar@yahoo.com
?

-----------------------------

LONDON (UK)-- DINNER

Event: A Collective Changing of the Clocks
(The Committee for Hospitality and Diplomacy)
Time and location:
Friday, September 26th, 7pm

The Committee for Hospitality and Diplomacy invites you to the
First International LunchTime Summit: LONDON

Invitation:
You are one of 16 groups and individuals invited to take part in this First International Lunchtime Summit, a coming together of collective initiatives and socially engaged art in 16+ cities on September 26th, 2003.

The Prime Meridian in situated just a couple of miles from Central London in Greenwich. Given that much of the world revolves around Greenwich Mean Time, and in the context of 16 simultaneously occurring lunches, International LunchTime

Summit: London will invite 16 collectives to answer the question: what is a revolution?  Beginning with a our ceremonial starter - a collective changing of the clocks, further courses/discussions will be based on centring and de-centring (of time, of hospitality, of our work) and on the protocols, etiquettes and structures that reinforce, or strategically dismantle divisions between projects created in the name of 'art ' from those with larger social, political or playful aims.

For the LONDON Summit, we ask that you and your collective:
A: Bring some food (we will have basics and drinks)
B: Supply one hospitable gesture
C: Give some thought to the following questions:
?What is to be done? (see www.16beavergroup.org click on journalisms)
? What are we doing?
? What protocols are enacted by your collective?
? How are our Projects not only hospitable toward but aligned with those outside of the art world?
? How might our projects align with others around the world: eg.
Vilnius, Krasnoyarsk, Toronto?

Your contributions will be slotted into the Menu in a similar manner to below:

MENU
Starters
The Committee for Hospitality and Diplomacy
(Representatives: Janna Graham, Susan Kelly and Stephen Morton)
The Prime Meridian is just a couple of miles from Central London in Greenwich. In the context of the 'What is to be Done?' project and considering the 16 simultaneous lunches around the world, the Committee will ponder the following: If the World Revolves around Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), then what is a revolution?

Hospitable Gesture 1
A Ceremonial changing of the watches

Please RSVP with your phone number to:
JannaGraham@whitechapel.org and
s.a.kelly@gold.ac.uk
or call Susan Kelly at (0775) 987 6690


------------------------------
LOS ANGELES, CA (USA)

Even
Time and location: ask Mark

Brief descirption:

Contact:
Mark Herbst
sparckle1@hotmail.com

Participants:
C-level
Journal of Asthetics and Protest

------------------------------

MANILA (PHILIPPINES)

Event Name: Colonial Happy Meal Project -- DINNER

Time:
September 17 and 26th follow-up
-Gathering of Artists, Sept 26
-Interaction with other artists around the world through e-mails

Brief Description:

The Lunch in Manila will be done at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (actually it is a dinner time, evening event) . The September 17, will be just a part of the series of Colonial Happy Meal Project. The concept of the project was not allowed for the reason, it might offend or "overtake" the 13 artists award ceremony and the government organizers (Awards given by the local institution for artists and we are not part it). The action and concept is just the same but we only change the title of the project for the meantime, so they can allow us to perform, we will run naked with body paint and will shout "What is to be done". After the action art we will distribute questionnaires-'what is to be done' to government officials, students and university professors- and collect all the data.

Our project is unofficial in terms of the actual event ceremony (it is a govenment-funded activity). We are not even part of the ceremony and AD publicity, instead the organizers put us on the program as intermission, just to amuse guests "while waiting", that is their idea. But this is our way of penetrating power structures by making such agreements (cost and publicity-efficient than making our own event, we have this experience, inviting art academy, public and art professors, and they don‚t have time for such a project). The organizers don‚t have any idea that this "small presentation of ours",an accent for their program as they knew it, on the 17th of September is an international leap for  local contemporary art.

I hope you understand our struggle, thanks

Part of report after the 17th:

Our Cultural Center of the Philippines' Action Art was so successful that people thought we were the awardees, because when organizers called the winners, we ran (naked with body-paints) immediately with the winner of the award, making handshakes with the executives and CCP president, in front of the media. They thought it was part of the program. We ran on the escalator, going up and going down (homage to Duchamp's staircase). Then we joined the crowd eating and drinking. After the performance, the group had a meeting in form of a meal-session at a nearby restaurant, and regarding the survey forms of What is to be done?, so we decided to do it on-line.


Contact:
Jevy Vitug
JBVitug@gmanetwork.com

Participants:

Links:
http://desarme.perfopuerto.org/ph/

-----------------------------

[MEXICO CITY] MEXICO DF (MEXICO)

Event: Primera cumbre [First Summit]

Hora y lugar [Time and location]
26 de septiembre de 2003, a las 8 PM, en el </Hache Tactical Media Lab>,
en la Col. Roma Norte.

Breve descripción [Brief description]:

[16 presenters talk for 2min. each. They then discuss over coffee, tea, and cake]

El objetivo es buscar tácticas y estrategias eficaces para incidir en la realidad social a través del arte. Un punto de partida es la pregunta "¿Qué debe hacerse?", que planteó Vladimir Ilich Lenin tomando prestado el título de la novela de Chernichevski.

La cumbre está limitada a 16 participantes, cuyas presentaciones serán de máximo 2 minutos, a lo que seguirá una discusión con pastel, café y te. Posteriormente, se publicará en Nueva York un libro con textos e imágenes de quienes colaboren.

Si te interesa formar parte de la Cumbre envía un párrafo con tu nombre, ocupación y por qué té interesa asistir.

Contacto:
Fran Ilich
ilich@delete.tv

Participantes:
Se agregarán


------------------

NEW YORK (USA)

Event: All-Day-Organic-Bio-Dynamic
DINNER
Time and location: ask Ayreen

Brief description:
What is to be done? "The question arises, what should nutritional education consist in? We must go organic and bio dynamic among all classes of the population‚ as theoreticians, as propagandists, as agitators, and as organizers. It is not enough to explain to the workers that they are politically oppressed through the bad nutrition that the upper class wants them to eat. Agitation must be conducted with regard to every concrete example of this oppression. Inasmuch as this oppression affects the most diverse classes of society, inasmuch as it manifests itself in the most varied spheres of life and activity ˆ occupational, civic, personal, family, religious, scientific, etc, etc. ˆ (...) In order to carry on agitation round concrete instances of oppression, surely these instances must be exposed."

Organic/ bio dynamic food not only for rich people! all classes of society should be able to enjoy it.

Call with 16 beaver! Bio dynamic for all!!!

Contact:
Ayreen Anastas
jobeuys@16beavergroup.org

Participants:
tba


-----------------------------

PARIS (FRANCE)

Event: Valdez Projects Eats Where It's From
Time and location: ask François

Chantal Mouffe in her book The Return of the Political asks the question what does it mean to be from the left today? and goes on to recall the chain of failures that she can diagnose under that category. She suggests that we are forced to abandon the abstract universalisms of the illustration; that the very idea of progress inherent in the project of modernity needs to be put radically into question. We are, in the same vein, forced to abandon the essentialist concept of a social totality and the myth of a unitary subject. This undoing of a unitary subject a legacy of postcolonial battles of all calibershas lead, necessarily, to the dissolution of a strong principle, or reality. The Author is dead, and the reader has been born. How to propose agency within contingency? By means of what strategies can this be done?

In other words, that which, following the intuitions of Nietzsche and Heidegger lead to a postmodern philosophy in the late 20th century, should be seen, not as relativistic or subjectivistic hindrance to the project of the left, but, as an indispensable tool for the development of any social program that doesnt want to continue trying to jump over its own shadow.

What is to be done?

To construct from here, to build in the abyss, with the certainty of the perishable nature of every initiative, once its moment has passed. To speak with the power of the image, to contest one image with another in the battle of representation, underlying the field of the struggle by an ethical stance, and not by a claim to truth.

In Paris there were two discussions on the 1973 coup in Chile in La Maison de LAmerique Latine. Someone brought up the notion that time was not linear, they pointed out that 1973 was closer to 2003 than it ever was to the 1980s or the 1990s. This has to do, partly, with the relatively recent arrest of Pinochet, but, partly also with the historical coincidence of 9.11 and the fall of La Casa de La Moneda.

The US government has been working day and night on their image of noble avengers of their victims of the terrorist attacks. And they have and will capitalize beautifully on this tragedy in every way we can ever imagine. Already a semi-documentary (the most dangerous rhetorical device of the day) has been produced by the Bush presidential campaign, where an actor re-plays the thunderstruck Bush, in his stuttering moments of the post September 11 days, as a clean and decisive president taking command of his Empire. His address to congress, and other moments of splendor, are left alone so that the two strands of footage that is, archival and reenactment footage will be indistinguishable. History will be rewritten in the collective memory of America by this, soon to be released presidential campaign video.

Never has there been such a definite, precise way of countering this narrative but by commemorating (commemorating: remembering collectively) 1973 and the Nixon-Kissinger orchestrated destruction of Chiles democracy, instead of commemorating 2001. It is an astonishing chance of giving voice (and especially giving image) to a narrative that counts every tortured and disappeared Chilean as a victim of the unfathomable cruelty of a pragmatic foreign policy that was playing chess with the South and the East then, as it is now. The opportunity is perfect, as if written by the most delicate and skilled storyteller. To image Chile instead of America on September 11th is a political act that speaks volumes. The law is not a metaphysical category but an image of the present.

The French, with their own governmental agendas of challenging the hegemonic U.S. world vision have already fully entered this battle of representation:

The place Allende inaugurated in Paris AP -- 11.09.03 -- 19:34

PARIS ( AP) - Thirty years after coup d'tat which knocked down the government of Salvador Allende, September 11, 1973, the mayor of Paris Bertrand Delano and the representative of the Chilean socialist Party inaugurated on Thursday a place in its name.

Having lunch together, globally, forming an inoperative community, is a an act that inserts itself in the same place, in the platform of the politics of representation.

In the vein of this argument the description of our summit:

Our dinner summit will be on the Caribbean gold: bananas.

We will present and stream live The United Fruit Company promotional film "Journey to Bananaland" at 8pm.

The Menu:
- Banana split from the French colonies Martinique, and Guadalupe.
- Banana shortbread from Chiquita the former United Fruit Company, whose ship re-baptized Exodus, took the first Jewish settlers to Palestine in 1948.
- Bonita banana chips from Ecuador, the only market that remained in South American hands.
- Banana bread from Honduras, where in the early 90s, when the company decided to sell the land, the government dislodged the people at gunpoint, from the villages that Chiquita Banana had created three generations ago.
- Banana ice cream from Dole with election Sunday toppings.
- Bananas from Del Monte. - ACP chocolate dipped bananas.
- Dollar banana syrup. - British Empire Banana sorbet from Jamaica.
- Banana leaves from the Windward Islands. - Fair trade bananas.
- Banana pie from BanaCol, Colombia where in 1929, to protect the interests of The United Fruit Company the army massacred the striking workers who wanted 6 day weeks, 10 hour days and the abolition of food coupons.
- Banana fruit cocktails from Guatemala where The United Fruit Company effectively lobbied for the orchestration of a right wing coup that overthrew Jacobo Arbenz and his agrarian reform.
- Chiquita Banana Coup Souffle from Honduras. - European Union banana nut cereal from the Canary Islands.

The conversation will not be set a priori.

text by FB

Organizers: Valdez Projects (Tanya Leighton, Maria Ines Rodriguez, Franois Bucher)

Participants:
Matthew Bakkhom, Artist, USA
Jade Lindgaard: Journalist Inrockuptibles
Ramon Menendez: psychoanalyst
Xavier De La Porte: Journalist France Culture
Yu Hsiao-Hwei, Art Critic
Tanya Leighton, Independent Curator
Maria Ines Rodriguez, Independent Curator
Franois Bucher, Artist


--------------------
ROME/BOLOGNA/NOVE LIGURE (ITALY)-- ALL-DAY FASTING

Event: Meeting through fasting
Time and location:
All day, various locations in Bologna, Milan, and Rome.

Meeting through fasting

The three of us (Emilio Fantin, Giancarlo Norese, Cesare Pietroiusti), each one in his own place and city (Bologna, Nove Ligure, Rome), will be fasting for 24 hours, for the whole day of September 26th. For breakfast, lunch and dinner each one of us will propose a different subject, that will become "the dish of the day" (war, smiling dictatorsgips, incorporation of goods, water supply etc.) and meditate about it. Instead of eating, we will also try to guess what the two others think about the chosen topic. Our project will try to reach an indirect, not personal, and not auto-referential common thinking. After the 24 hours experience we will collect our considerations together with some pictures of the sites where our actions have taken place. This material will become our contribution to the book.

Topics for meditation:
- a smiling dictatorship (proposed by Giancarlo)
- Pantagruel and the Kamikaze; the waste and the sacrifice
(proposed by Emilio)
- the need of incorporating goods, to feel part of the world
(proposed by Cesare)

Contact:
Cesare Pietroiusti
cesarepietroiusti@hotmail.com

Participants:
Cesare Pietroiusti
Giancarlo Norese
Emilio Fantin

-----------------------------

SAN JUAN (PUERTO RICO)

Event: TODAVIA EN EL SIGLO 20 / STILL IN the 20th's' CENTURY

Time and location: lunch, ask Michy (see below)

TODAVIA EN EL SIGLO 20 / STILL IN the 20th's' CENTURY

Everyone knows that there are four basic tastes: Sweet, sour, salty and bitter.  A fifth taste UMAMI was admitted last year to the gustatory pantheon, and a growing awareness of its role in the flavor and pleasurable sensation of food is changing the way food processors, nutrisionists, and chefs think about what they do.

Umami is described in the West by elusive and bizarre terms like: satisfaction, savory, meaty, bloom, and tingling as well as furriness on the tongue, and sweet saline taste accompanied by some astringency.  Some Chefs have even compared it with the chameleonlike ability to alter its taste according to the flavor environment, serving to heighten the continuity, impact, mouthfulness, amplitude, or total intensity of foods. (1)

FOOD has a power to bring people together...  FRIDAY 26 at 12:00 noon time a LUNCH SUMMIT will take place simultaneously around other 20 cities.

"This SUMMIT is one of the everyday more than that of the usual summit that takes place in a hotel, a resort or in Camp David." "This SUMMIT might in a modest way mix our revolutionary ambitions with our everyday needs for collectivity, for thought, for fun, for food"

20th's' CENTURY (2) which has already passed in history, is still for us a present / real place (space) where a group of individual meet in a consequent manner not only to satisfy their physical needs to ingest nutrients but also to discuss, to process social and political issues, to share among friends the irony of our own constructions as individuals in today's society but above all it is for sure a place where the taste is impact according to the flavor of the environment.   

LUNCH SUMMIT will start with three tables, others interested in joining can make their own or grasp a seat where they feel comfortable in... One person should be incharged of recording and summarizing the discussion and or provoke some editing, writings, actions before, during or after the fact.

AS A STARTER FOR THE SUMMIT: I like to share some notes from the book: THE DEATH OF COMMON SENSE, How law is suffocating America by Philip K. Howard

"Politicians spend their lives apologizing for government.  They all promise to fix it, but the slogans are so tired and the performance so dismal that the overall effect is more like propaganda"  Everyone wants to help...  At the end the result can end up something like this: Streets fifty feet wide ( about 50% wider than streets were a few decades ago), because the traffic engineers who wrote the standard code after World War II believed that streets should be wide enough to allow two fire engines going in opposite directions to pass each other at 50 miles an hour".  As a result modern 'America' have increase depleted human interaction as commented by Andres Duany (a Miami architect).

That's for USA, take it from there and implement it in Puerto Rico, which by the way is just 100 miles by 33 miles of territory... THAT IS TRULY TO BE MODERN... -  in other words - there is no need to think about it since it is already a designated law... no wander why Ferdinand Mercado is still on the boat to be the President of the Supreme Court in Puerto Rico  -  ANYHOW we are still here in the 20th's' CENTURY?  Has Modern Law, in an effort to be " sellf-executing". Has shut out our humanity?

LISTADO: MESA #1 (M&M proyectos)
Guillermo Calzadilla
Jennifer Allora
Michy Marxuach
Chemi Rosado
Bebe Casellas
Miguel Angel
Peyot Marta
Mabel Perez
Kike Renta
Tony Cruz
Etc etc etc

MESA DE MIGUELO:
Nestor Barreto
Miguel Marxuach
Etc etc etc

MESA DE MONCHO
Ramon Lloveras
Joe Barreto
German Colberg Nuno
Etc etc etc

MESA DE JUAN CUAYAR
Contact:
Michy Marxuach
michy@microjuris.com



-----------------------------

SKOPJE (MACEDONIA)

Event: "Naked Brunch at the CCSkM"

Brunch: The hybrid nature of the brunch as a contemporary
irregular regime of nutrition is in relation with the hybrid nature of the local cultural habits.

Time and location:
11.00-13.30, Cultural Centre "To#269;ka", Boulevard Ilinden

Brief description:
The title "Naked Brunch at the CCSkM (Central Committee for Skopje Marginalia)" is play with words on the location of the Skopje brunch. The Cultural Centre "To#269;ka" is based on the Skopje Boulevard Ilinden, next to the building of the ex-Central Committee of Union of Communists of Macedonia (CCSKM) that now hosts the Government of Macedonia and most of its Ministries.

The main aim and result of each revolution, that is to provoke symmetric shifts between margins and centre, make relative any final answer to the question 'what is to be done'.

The contextualised re-reading of Lenin's thesis in the condition of transition from one political and economic system to another will take place during the 4-course brunch accompanied with 16 presentations of the participating art, theatre, film, culture, and media theorists, artists, or activists engaged in cultural and geopolitical critique, human-rights issues, antiglobalist movement, gender troubles, and other hot and cool issues in Macedonia.

MENU:
Cold starters: self-introduction and announcements of the titles of the presentations, 16 participants/1 min.
Hot starters: proposals of the main arguments, 16 participants/1min.
Main Course: 16 presentations/3-5 min.
Dessert: open discussion, 30-40 min.
Protocol: while one speaks the others eat.
Dress code: all uniforms allowed. Ties are strictly forbidden.
The meals will be sponsored by the Macedonian Youth Hostel Association.
The courses and recipes t/b/a.

Contact:
suzanamilevska@yahoo.com

Participants:
Suzana Milevska, curator and visual culture theorist, Minister for
Never-Ending Comedy of Revolution
#381;arko Trajanovski, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights activist,
Minister for Lucid Day Dreaming
Nikola Gelevski, writer, Minister for Margins and Edgy Areas
Iskra Ge#353;oska, theatre critic
Robert Alagjozovski, publicist and literature theorist,
Presidential Candidate
Aco Stankovski, salon painter and film maker
Hristina Ivanoska/Yane #268;alovski, artists
Sa#353;o Stanojkovi?, artist and retired revolutionary
Stefan Simonovski, antiglobalist
Marko Petru#353;evski, video records
Vlado Jankovski, minutes
and 8 more t/b/a.

------------------------------

TORONTO (CANADA)

Event: Dinner and a Manifesto on the Political Economy of
Academia.
Time: For unavoidable scheduling reasons we will hold it on
Friday the 26th at noon, Kamchatka time.
Location: Christine's place, Toronto, Canada

Description:
Our dinner also launches a larger FUSE project called "Dinner and a Manifesto." This event will give us the chance to practice (in both senses of the word) what we preach before we start inviting our friends to sponsor their own Manifesto-producing dinners.

Our conversation will, as the title suggests, explore the Political
Economy of Academia in relation to the question of "what is to be done." We will discuss the extent to which the highly competitive economy of the academy impacts the culture of academia (a kind of "base - superstructure" argument if you want to make the marxist assumption explicit). We want to ask if there isn't a link between this economy and the gap between the stated progressive ideals of many academics and the cultural milieu which they inhabit and create for them(our?)selves. Without diminishing the importance of ideas, we want to ask whether the hermeticism of much current left discourse in the arts might be improved more by a culture of generosity and a commitment to action (and interaction) than the careful refinement of particular brand-name theories (you know: there is "Polo, by Ralph Lauren" or "Deconstruction, by Jacques Derrida)? In short we want to ask not only "what is to be done" in the academic context, but "what needs to happen for things to get done?" What attitudes do we need to have? How should we be interacting with each other? Are there alternative structures to an economy that forces us to compete, that encourages us to score points of each other and hoard and guard our ideas?

Participants: FUSE magazine and guests. We are (at the moment):
Adrian Blackwell, Bryce Goebel, Ayesha Hameed, Richard William
Hill, Marilyn Jung, Kims Ligers, Michael Maranda, Astrida
Niemanis, Christine Shaw, Jessica Wyman, Trish Salah, and Kim
Simon.

----------------------------

TUCUMAN (ARGENTINA) -- LUNCH

Event: Soy meal by Viva Laura Perez
Time and Location: 13:00 hs., (TBA), Tucuman.

The importance of the action is given by the signification of the menu, which is based on soy. The soy, main cultivation sown in Argentina, constitutes a food of high quality for the human diet. How can it be justified that in a country that presents one of the greater levels of food production there be hunger in the inhabitants.

Contact:
VLP - Viva Laura Perez
vlp_grupo@hotmail.com

-----------------------------

VANCOUVER (CANADA)

Event: 16 Things To Chew On Lunch
Time and location: 1:00pm at Kat Dodds' house: the Red Door in Chinatown 525 Carrall, near the Suzhou Alley lampost.

16 things to eat will be served. 16 participants have been invited, some consider themselves artists, some not. Most have engaged in some way with answering the question "what is to be done" in their work. The meal will be documented on video. Something, or some things will be made from this documentation.

It will take place at 1pm PST. Brief description:

Contact: Kat Dodds
goodcompany@hellocoolworld.com

Participants:
Kat Dodds
goodcompany@hellocoolworld.com
Andreas
FRONT Magazine
www.hellocoolworld.com
...


---------------------

VILNIUS (LITHUANIA)

Event name: Mark this as "Miscellaneous" or if you have a section for Social Experimentation, place it there and title it: "Tasting, Hearing, Seeing, Sharing, and Constructing an Imagined Community"
Time and location: 3:00 - 10:00 pm CAC, Contermporary Art Centre in Vilnius

Keywords:
Beyond, An Unreal Time, Imagined Communities, Home Economics, Street Music, Hunger, Premieres and Introductions, MC's and Tamadas, Cashing In/Out, Frequency Modulations, Toast-making, Fire Eaters, Punk, Ska, Drum & Bass, Human Beat Box, Dinner Collectives, Food Insecurity, Common People, Club Mikshys, Good Will, Social Experiments, Open Possibilities, Get Involved

Brief Description:
The great social, political, and environmental problems of this young century are as complex and varied as are the solutions.  Rather than propose actions or solutions, for the Vilnius part of the summit, we will mainly focus on tasting, seeing, hearing, imagining and realizing a temporary community of our own making.  This community, be it inoperative, underway, utopian, antagonistic, problematic, exploited, alienated, cooperative, unique, underway ... will be gathered, proposed and (dis)connected through various activities.

Some spaces for Actions/Activities/Experiments:

//Food//
We played with several possibilities for this meal and well there are ideas in our notebooks, which we may revisit on other occasions.  But for the 1st International Lunch Summit, we have organized an experimental format for collective dinner planning.  All visitors of the Contemporary Art Centre are invited to contribute a product/ingredient for the evening's meal.  At 6:00 2-3 food artists (i.e., chefs) of different cooking persuasions will take all these ingredients and in the space of a few hours prepare a meal for all the visitors/participants to enjoy.

//Sound & Music//
This aspect of the project is inspired by an interesting set of public performances organized by e-Xplo (e-Xplo.org) in Turin, Italy in 2001 as a part of BIG.  In these "open channel" events, sound artists were invited to perform live in public spaces, performing individually, and then being invited to also perform together, unrehearsed, improvised.  

For the Vilnius project, a group comprised of Rene, Raimundas, Virga, Gintas K, Mic, and a few others (the list grows a bit each day) have been putting together a set of sound artists, street musicians, and others working with sound/music to come together for this day, and create a set of individual performances and "jam sessions" which will not only entertain visitors and participants, but also attempt through sound to represent a sort of imagined community.  A space where alterity or difference is not only tolerated or accepted, but enjoyed, engaged with, welcomed.   

The set list will be improvised, put together between the artists and posted the day of the performances.

//Language and Voice//
The social construction of our community requires discussion and possibly debate.  To highlight the importance of oral culture and the oral transmission of ideas, The Society for Experimental Catering and The International Union of MC's and Tamadas will co-sponsor the first ever World Championship of Toastmaking.  Professional and amateur toastmakers from Lithuania as well as from abroad will be invited to present, within the context of our meal, a toast addressing Vladimir Lenin's provocative question 'What is to Be Done?'

In this toast, our prospective "tamadas" will be judged by a panel of
experts on their mode of delivery as well as the insight and vision of
their proposals. An award will be given to honor the most exceptional toastmaster.

//Film and Video//
In addition to our attempts to link live feeds from the different lunches/cities, we will be premiering Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla's project for the 24/7 exhibition called "ViLNiUS".
In the project, the artists placed an ad asking residents of Vilnius who were interested, to come together and make a film.

Those who were interested in participating in the project were given all decision making for making the film.  They decided the subject matter, the actors, the genre, the locations, and the final cut.

The only demand of the project was that it be called "ViLNiUS". Screening will begin at approx: 9:00 pm


//Visual Interferences, Tools, Cues & Q's//
"What is to be done?"  may also need to be visualized and questioned in this temporary community of ours, how about placards, papers, markers which will be available for guests, actors, participants ... in order to make signs that voice various political concerns and their imagined solutions.  Forms with the question "What is To Be Done" will also be available for people to fill out.  In addition, groups who have a particular political project, underrepresented communities, counter-culture zines, activists, social networks and clubs will be invited to station or bring representatives, booklets, pamphlets, and other materials at temporary kiosks.

Please join us for what should be an exceptional event!

Contact:
Rene Gabri <renegabri@16beavergroup.org>
Raimundas Malasauskas <raimay@hotmail.com>
Virginija Januskeviciute <virginija@cac.lt>
Mic <mic@hardcore.lt>
Gintas K <gintaskr@takas.lt>

Confirmed Participants:
Gabrielé Bartuseviciute, Brothers Lomonosovai, Rusak, Arturas Bumsteinas, Gintas K, Antanas Jasenka, Atrack aka Denisas Safoval, Mic, Dinas, hardcore.lt, Vilnius Film Collective, Rene Gabri, Raimundas Malasauskas, Darius Miksys, Virginija Januskeviciute, JA & GC, Knygu Skaitymas, Kablys distro, Dreadlocks, Piercing, Ugnius (some photos), Aiva, Vita, Egle (feminist trajectories),         ,...


--------------------------------

WEIMAR or LEIPZIG (GERMANY) not confirmed
Event name or concept?
Breakfast? Lunch? Dinner?
Time and location

Brief description:

Participants:

--------------------------------

YEREVAN (ARMENIA)
Event name or concept:Untitled
Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner: Your Choose
Time and location: This event can really happen anywhere. It is more of an idea or concept than something specific to this community, city, country.

Brief description:
Everyday people eat food but never think about the waste they produce while doing so. They also do not consider the food that is wasted, that could be eaten. Being a practical people and often necessarily inventive, we Armenians, often find ways or recycling, saving, eating what was left at dinner late night after drinks, etc... . But with the rise of capitalism, or some cruder version of it here, there is a lot of waste and a lot gaps between those who can afford to throw away, and those who cannot afford to even have. So what we propose and will execute on our own, is to construct or create a table with what is available and some temporary structure to support ourselves, where-ever it is we feel hungry, using wasted materials or those readily available, maybe a ledge of a building. Also in this same area, find some food, whatever it maybe, that has been thrown away. We will move through the garbage like a friend, like our own death, and as a sort of meditation on all that is wasted.

Although this sounds like Bataille or on the other hand some conservatives or romantic, who want things to be reborn, not die, this is not the case at all. Maybe we sound like those Armenians wandering around cemetaries in that obscure reference in James Joyce's Ulysses, but that is not the case.

It is more about taking one day to think about the excess, as an idea, as a concept, and waste, both as something to consider avoiding in movements and activities, everyday actions and as something like the unthought, the thing that one must not avoid thinking about, touching engaging, precisely because of its taboo. This day, we propose to be devoted to recouping symbolically and rethinking literally all the excesses and wastes of our specific societies.

Participants:
Julfa Projects
(We are in the process of getting our websites up and running)

Anyone else is welcome to do the same in their own city.

 

 

3 ----------------------------------------------------------------

Action Alert: Letter writing campaign for Colombia 3

 

The Culture & Conflict group invites artists' groups to join in sending a letter/fax/email of concern to the Colombian President Alvaro Uribe regarding the trail of the Colombian 3 during the Lunch Summit on Friday Sept 26 . It would be best for groups to contact the Colombian consulate in the city nearest to where you are located. For more information on the Columbian Three http://www.bringthemhome.ie

For more information on proposal Kevin Noble   linkink@interport.net Conor McGrady    conor.mcgrady@rcn.com

Action Alert: Letter writing campaign for Colombia 3

  --------------------------------------------------------------------
  A letter writing campaign is underway on behalf of the Colombia
  3.  Here again are the facts of the case, followed by model
  letters and the addresses of consulates and embassies to which
  they should be sent.   The information below is from Caitriona
  Ruane of the Bring Them Home campaign
  --------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Act for Justice for Colombian Three

  * The juryless trial, before a single Colombian judge, of   Irishmen Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan   began on October 4, 2002 and concluded on August 1, 2003 after   7 adjournments. The men are courageously represented by   Colombian human rights lawyers. Judge Acosta has reserved   judgment and his verdict is expected soon, possibly in   October.

  * Our focus, at this critical stage, is the Colombian   government. The Colombian government needs to know that the   world is watching how fairly and independently their judicial   system operates. We are asking that Judge Acosta be permitted   to make his judgment BASED ON THE EVIDENCE, free from   political or military pressure from Colombia or the U.S. or   any other outside influence. If that happens, we are   confident of the result.

  * The evidence is clearly on the side of Connolly, McCauley   and Monaghan. Based on the evidence it provided at trial, the   prosecution has NO case with regards the principle charge of   training FARC military.

  - The men were arrested in August 2001 in the open Peace   Zone. Peace advocates from around the world have also   travelled there, including elected political leaders and human   rights activists from around the world. The three men declare   they were in the zone to share their experiences from the   Irish peace process and to bring back to Ireland what they   learned from the Colombian peace process, which was ongoing.

  - The prosecution's case was filled with inconsistencies and   allegations refuted by clear video evidence, countered by   testimon from credible defence witnesses and authenticated   affidavits placing the defendants elsewhere when they were   supposedly training FARC. These include Irish government   diplomats and human rights organization workers who testified   at trail, former employers, and others.

  - The forensics do not support the case against the men   either. Dr Keith Borer, a famous, independent forensic   scientist, examined al the materials in regard to the forensic   tests carried out at the US Embassy [a very suspect event in   itself and an indictment agains Colombian independence in the   case] and stated in court that there is NO forensic evidence   against the men. Colombian forensic tests proved negative   after 113 tries to find a positive result. Dr. Borer also   testified that FARC technology is unchanged durin this time   and that FARC and IRA technology were and remain very   different. In other words, there is no evidence, real or   theoretical, that these men were training FARC.



                   ******************************

  MODEL LETTERS

  Please send this or your own words to the appropriate Embassy or
  Consulate

  see addresses below

  "Dear Ambassador

  I am writing to express my concerns over the actions of the
  Colombian government and the juryless trial of Jim Monaghan,
  Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly on charges of traveling on
  false passports and of giving military training to FARC.

  Despite Colombian president Alvaro Uribe publicly stating "we
  have in jail some IRA members who came to help the FARC", the
  whole world has seen the prosecution case collapse. The case  brought against the three men had three strands: the testimony of former FARC members who said they saw the men training  guerrillas, a test purporting to show traces of explosives on the men's clothing and the alleged similarities between FARC and IRA  weaponry. All three strands have been successfully undermined by the men's defense team. It is now time to accept that the prosecution case has failed to prove that the men were in any way  training FARC and to send the three Irishmen home.

  The world is watching with interest how the Colombian judicial
  system will serve justice and whether Judge Acosta will be
  permitted to make his judgment based on the evidence, free from
  political or military pressure.

  I trust that the right verdict will be reached and that the three
  Irishmen will be returned home swiftly and safely.

  Yours faithfully...


  ----


  Dear Ambassador/Consulate

  As members of {name of organization} we are writing to express
  our concerns in relation to the trial of the 'Colombia Three'.

  These three men are Niall Connolly, James Monaghan and Martin
  McCauley who have been on trial in Bogota.

  We understand that the case has concluded and a decision is
  awaited from Judge Acosta. We are familiar with the facts of the
  cases.

  In particular, we request that Judge Acosta be allowed the space
  and possibility to come to an independent judgement. He should be
  allowed to make a decision that comes from the evidence before
  him and is not affected by outside military or political forces.

  We hope that Colombian justice will be impartial and above all
  fair. We will pay careful regard to reports from international
  legal observers and civil and human rights groups.

  We hope justice will be done.

  Yours sincerely...

 

  WHAT TO SAY:

  * You are familiar with the facts of the trial.

  * All you ask is that Judge Acosta be given the space to make   an independent judgment based on the evidence presented at   trial and be free from outside political or military   influence.

  * Indicate that you are concerned that justice be done and   will be carefully noting reports from international legal   observers and civil and human rights groups.

  * Lastly, you hope that Colombian justice will be fair and   impartial.

  WHAT NOT TO SAY:

  * Don't get into the legal details or lecture about justice,   etc.

  * Don't be confrontational or insulting.

  * Your tone with Colombian diplomats should be serious but   friendly and positive. Above all, we want them to know we are   watching.




  * CONTACTS:

  Contact Colombian embassies and consulates throughout the  world.

  Write a personalized letter directly to the Colombian President
  Alvaro Uribe at rdh@presidencia.gov.co

  The President can also be contacted by E-mail through the
  Colombian web site: http://www.colombiaemb.org

  In Ireland, contact :

  Honorary Consul of Colombia
  Ms. Ines Elvira de Tynan
  Calima
  Brighton Road
  Foxrock
  Dublin 18.
  E-mail: gerivila@eircom.net
  ----

  In the US, contact:

  Ambassador Luis Alberto Moreno,
  The Embassy of Colombia,
  2118 Lero Place NW,
  Washington, D.C. 20008;
  Phone: 202 387-8338; Fax: 202-232-8643;
  E-mail: emwas@colombiaemb.org
  ----

  In Australia contact:

  Mr. J. Alzamora
  Colombian Consul General
  Level 12, 100 Walker Street,
  North Sydney 2000
  Australia
  ----

  In England, Scotland & Wales Contact:

  Colombian Embassy
  3 Hans Crescent
  London SWIX OLN
  Tel. 0207 589 9177 / 589 5037  (Human Rights Officer's extension
  is 112)
  Fax  0207 581 1829 / 589 4718
  website http://www.colombianembassy.co.uk
  email mail@colombianembassy.co.uk

                   ******************************

  There are Consulates in the following cities: Atlanta, New York,
  Houston, Washington DC, and Los Angeles. Contact information
  attached.

  These can also be accessed through http://www.colombiaemb.org

  Consulate offices

  Washington
  1101 17th Street NW suite 1007
  Washington DC 20036
  Tel: 202-332-7476
  Fax: 202-332-7180 (Fx)
  cwashington@minrelext.gov.co
  Consul: Maria Clara Faciolince Pineres
  Jurisdiction: DC, MD, VA, DE, WV
  Hours; Mon-Fri 9:00am-12:30pm
  ----

  New York City
  10 East 46th Street
  New York City, NY 10017
  Tel: 212-949-9898
  212-370-0004
  Fax: 212-972-1725 (Fx)
  concolny@nosotros.com
  cnewyork@minrelext.gov.co
  Consul: Jaime Buenahora Febres-Cordero
  Jurisdiction: NY, NJ, PA
  Hours: Mon-Fri 9:00am-1:45pm
  ----

  Atlanta
  5901 - C Peachtree Dunwoody Road,
  Suite 375,
  Atlanta, GA, 30328
  Tel: 770-6680451/0512/0552.
  EXT: 21 -22 - 23- 24
  Fax: 770-668-0763(Fx)
  v_consul@bellsouth.net
  consulco@bellsouth.net
  catlanta@minrelext.gov.co
  Consul: Cesar Felipe Gonzalez
  Jurisdiction: GA, KY, NC, SC, TN, MS, AL.
  Hours: Mon-Fri 9:00am-1:00pm
  ----

  Boston
  535 Boylston Street,
  11th Floor
  Boston, MA 02116
  Tel: 617-536-6222
  Fax: 617-536-9372 (Fx)
  Email: conboston@aol.com
  cboston@minrelext.gov.co
  Consul: Rosario Castillo de Gonzalez
  Jurisdiction: MA, NH, VT, CT, RI Mon-Fri
  Hours: 9:00am-1:30pm
  ----

  Chicago
  500 North Michigan Avenue,
  Suite 2040
  Chicago, IL 60611 312-923-1196
  312-923-9034/5
  312-923-1197 (Fx)
  chicag95@aol.com
  cchicago@minrelext.gov.co
  Consul: Jose Fernando Gomez Mora
  Jurisdiction: IL, KS, IN, IA, MO, MN,
  ND, SD, WI, MI, OH, NE
  Hours: Mon-Fri 9:00am-1:00pm
  ----

  Houston
  5851 San Felipe, Suite 300
  Houston, Texas 77057
  Tel: 713-527-8919
  713-527-9093
  Fax: 713-529-3395 (Fx)
  infoconsulado@colhouston.org
  chouston@minrelext.gov.co
  Consul: Hernan Arizmendi Posada
  Jurisdiction: TX, OK, AR, LA.
  Hours: Mon-Fri 9:00am-2:00pm
  ----

  Los Angeles
  8383 Wilshire Blvd.,
  Suite 420
  Beverly Hills, CA 90211
  Tel: 323-653-9863
  323-653-4299
  Fax: 323-653-2964 (Fx)
  cnlosangeles@earthlink.net
  cangeles@minrelext.gov.co
  Consul: Myriam Beltran de Forero
  Jurisdiction: Southern CA, AZ, NM
  Hours: Mon-Fri 9:00am-1:00pm
  ----

  Miami
  280 Aragon Ave.
  Coral Gables, FL 33134
  Tel: 305-448-5558
  305-441-1235
  305-448-4179
  305-441-9537 (Fx)
  Email: cgcmiami@bellsouth.net
  cmiami@minrelext.gov.co
  Consul: Carmenza Jaramillo
  Jurisdiction: FL, Bahamas, Gran Cayman.
  Hours: Mon-Fri 8:30am-1:00pm
  ----

  San Francisco
  595 Market Street,
  Suite 2130
  San Francisco, CA 94105
  Tel: 415-495-7195/96
  Fax: 415-777-3731 (Fx)
  colombia@pacbell.net
  csnfrancisco@minrelext.gov.co
  Consul:  Fanny Margarita Moncayo
  Jurisdiction: Northern CA, AK, CO, HI, ID,
  MT, NV, OR, UT, WA, WY
  Hours: Mon-Fri 9:00am-1:30pm
  ----

  Puerto Rico
  Edificio Mercantil,
  Pl 814
  Avenida Ponce de Leon
  Hato Rey, PR 00918
  Tel:  787-7546899
  787-754-6885
  787-754-1675 (Fx)
  cnsju@coqui.net
  csanjuan@minrelext.gov.co
  Consul:Ana Catalina del Llano Restrepo
  Jurisdiction; US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, PR,
  Hispanola,
  Hours: Mon-Fri 9:00am-1:30pm