Mass moon gazing
Guadalajara will take part in a new effort by Mexico to enter the Guinness Book of World Records for the most people simultaneously looking at the moon through telescopes next week. On Saturday, December 3, from 5 p.m. lunar lovers will gather on the corner of Avenida Mexico and Chapultepec, one of 36 sites across the country taking part in the record attempt.
Larva finished
Following a final nine-million-peso investment, the restoration of one of Guadalajara’s most antique cinemas is complete. First opened in the historic center in 1940, with a capacity of 3,296, the Cine Variedades, as it was then known, closed in 1996.
After years of disuse, the city council began to fund a restoration project and the cinema, renamed the Laboratorio de Artes Variedades (Larva) finally reopened for a one-off rock concert on New Year’s Eve, 2008. The following year a café, library and art gallery were installed, and the venue has now officially reopened as of November 23.
Although a long-term schedule has yet to be released, the theater will host a range of upcoming cultural events, including “Pulso en Construccion,” a spectacular show involving acrobats, actors and ballerinas, on December 16 and 17. Tickets cost 80 pesos, or 60 for students. The Larva theater is located on Avenida Juarez, on the corner with Ocampo.
Jumex Collection
The modern art exhibition entitled “Now: Works from the Jumex Collection” opened last month in the Cultural Cabañas Institute. Featuring 140 works by 80 Mexican artists, it has been described as a “dialogue between the past an the future, from the present” by Cecilia Wolf, the director of the Cabañas Institute.
A philanthropic offshoot of the well-known juice company, the Jumex Foundation has gathered of one of the nation’s largest private collections of contemporary art, with over 2,500 works normally housed in a 1,400-square-foot gallery in the capital.
In addition to its curatorial labors, the foundation supports young artists by commissioning projects and says its mission is to promote the conservation, production, investigation and construction of meaning of contemporary art produced in Mexico and abroad.
The Jumex exhibition is open in the Cultural Cabañas Institute until January 8, 2012, Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Soccer playoffs
Despite finishing league leaders in the regular season, Guadalajara Chivas are now in danger of exiting the soccer playoffs at the first hurdle. Chivas suffered a 2-1 defeat on the road to Queretaro in the first-leg of the quarter-finals last weekend and now need a home win to proceed to the semi-finals. The second-leg takes place Saturday, November 26, 7 p.m. in the city’s Omnilife Stadium.
Canelo fights
Local boxing star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will take to the ring on Saturday, November 26, 10 p.m. to defend his WBC light-middleweight belt against Puerto Rico’s Kermit “Killer” Cintron. The Tapatio boxer will put his title on the line for the third time in Mexico City’s iconic Plaza de Toros bullring.
“Canelo’s rival is one of the most dangerous around. It will be a competitive and exciting fight,” said Jose Sulaiman, president of the World Boxing Council.
The fight will be screened live on HBO in the United States and free-to-air Televisa Channel 2 in Mexico.