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The Festival of Science and Curiosity
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May 24-25
All-Russian Exhibition Center VVTs 
Moscow Polytechnic Museum, one of the oldest science museums in the world and the biggest museum of science and technology in Russia, and World Science Festival (New York) present the Festival of Science and Curiosity "Polytech" for adults and children. This cheerful and educational holiday will be held at the Industry Square in All-Russia Exhibition Centre and in the "Cosmos" pavilion and pavilion # 26 where a new exhibition of the Polytechnic Museum was opened in April and this place will be a main venue of the museum on the periof of the historical building reconstruction (till 2017).
The world-renowned scientists, popularizers of science, artists and actors from Russia, USA, Holland, Sweden and Japan will take part in the festival. The program of "Polytech" inludes such events as an exhibition "Kinetic Life of Sand Beaches" by the famous Dutch artist Theo Jansen, a multimedia performance "Icarus at the Edge of Time" by Brian Greene, an installation "Brilliant Ideas" by Nikolay Polissky, a sci-fi performance "Lem Planet", an exhibition and master-classes by French video artist Brian Clement, an interactive exhibition "Bestiarium Construendum", and much more.
Brian Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, and is widely recognized for a number of groundbreaking discoveries in superstring theory, including the co-discoveries of mirror symmetry and topology change. His first book for general audiences, The Elegant Universe was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and has sold more than a million copies worldwide.
 Icarus at the Edge of Time is a futuristic reimagining of the classic Greek myth set in outer space, based on a stunning book by the world-renowned physicist Brian Greene. Featuring a brand new score by Philip Glass, this European premiere is performed live by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Marin Alsop with a cutting-edge film by Al and Al. Discover the boy who challenges the awesome power of a black hole and the unyielding forces of Einstein's general relativity. The first half of the performance features John Adams' Doctor Atomic Symphony, an orchestral distillation of Adams' powerful opera about the life of Dr J Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who developed the atomic bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The modern reading of the myth about Icarus will be presented in the "Cosmos" pavilion at the special stage. The authors of the Russian performance are an actor Stepan Devonin and Youth Symphony Orchestra of Russia under Vasilii Valitov's direction.
Theo Jansen is a Dutch kinetic artist, creating new forms of life since 1990. He is father to the "Animari" beach creatures, or "Strandbeests" (in Dutch) or the "sand animals", on the words of the artist, that walk the beach powered by the wind. From plastic yellow tubes, Jansen creates sculptures which remind pre-historical animals, on an expression of kinetic art. The "sand animals" are designed from computer models which allows Jansen to optimize the movements of the structures. Thus, the sculptures become able to walk on the sand, avoiding obstacles and going back in the presence of water, thanks to really simple mechanisms based on binary code. Inspired on Darwin's theory of evolution, the artist improves his animals on a trial-and-error basis. After creating a "sand animal" and observing its behavior when passing through the atmospheric and geographic conditions of the beaches, Jansen declares the extinction of the sculpture and starts working at the next creation, correcting the problems which were detected at its antecessor. Becoming the sculptures able to "survive" by themselves at the beaches - without Jansen' aid - is the final aim. By now, the artist solved the locomotor's part of the structures, the energy's storage and the adaptation under adverse conditions. The lower parts of the sculptures, similar to legs, get moved keeping the axis on the same level, turning the walk on the sand as easy as possible.
Jansen started to create the Strandbeets 21 years ago. The plastic tubes he uses are cheap, weightless and look like bones, providing to the sculptures the appearance of skeletons. Before starting this life adventure, this artist-engineer studied Physics at Delft University - and, at his first big kinetic project, he created an UFO which got the Delft inhabitants terrified. Now, his sand animals cause astonishment and enthusiasm on kids and adults.
 Nature and art at the centre of life - that is what artist Nikolay Polissky aims to achieve in his installation "Brilliant Ideas". Material and surrounding nature is an acceptable standard of art for the "country artist" Nikolay Pollisky who was born in 1957 in Moscow and studied at Leningrand Industrial Art School. One of the biggest artwork by Nikolay Polissky is created in the countryside of the village Nikola Levinets 200 km west from Moscow. Through that the village became famous all over the world of its contemporary artworks. There in 1989 in collaboration with local residents he created an other view of life for these people. Through Polissky's art projects they find out the truly meaning and beauty of art when it's combined with the meaning and beauty of nature.
The interactive exhibition "Bestiarium Construendum" is based on a set of animal sculpture parts. Although quite large, these parts (bodies, legs, tails, heads, etc.) are light and easy to fix together. By assembling the parts visitors can create sculptures of ordinary animals and - or make up their own menagerie of fantasy creatures. It's possible to build creatures familiar from myths and fairy-tales (like Minotaur, Pegasus or mermaid) or invent one that has never been seen before. The "Bestiarium Construendum" sculptures look like the relics of antiquity. The colours and rough surfaces of the rather cumbersome sculptures convey the feeling of ancient cultures. However, they are supposed to be touched and played with. Visitors turn the exhibition into a performance, an ever-changing show. There is always something new being created, the possibilities are infinite. Schoolchildren are most welcome to the exhibition.
 The visitors of the festival will also see Sweden-based Erik Aberg's work who has created a rather crazy system of hinging cubes together. Erik Aberg is a juggler from Sweden. His first specialization within juggling was the manipulation of balls using the head which was documented in the film "Headache" by Peapot Productions. He has performed in Europe with the companies Idiot Savant and Circo Aereo, and was the guest performer at the Japanese Juggling Festival in Shizouka in 2007. Later on he did research on cigarbox manipulation which was partly documented in the film "The Room" by Visionbot. His most recent work has been focused on clubs and rings, and the search for new techniques. Erik Aberg created a fascinating system of interlocking wood cubes that can be twisted, turned, and folded to create increasingly complex shapes reminiscent of origami.
There will also an interactive playground of "Yandex", dinosaurs by the laboratory of robotics in the Polytechnic Museum, a full-scale model of a steam locomotive by autodesign studio and other astonishing things at the festival's space on 24 and 25 of May.
More info
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