The annual Festival Polytech is an open-air celebration of science and curiosity, welcoming thousands of guests of all ages. In 2014, scientists, artists and engineers from 12 countries of the world participated in the exhibitions and installations, lectures, screenings, performances and interactive stands run by the Museum. The festival was the first collaborative project of the Polytechnic Museum (Moscow) and the World Science Festival (New York).

1. «POLYTECH»
festival of science
and curiosity

2. The «Polytech» Festival of Science and Curiosity is a joint project of Moscow Polytechnic Museum and World Science Festival (New York). The celebration of science, art and technology took place out in the open on VDNKh, in Promyshlennosti (Industrial) Square, as well as Cosmos pavilion and pavilion №26, where a new Polytechnic Museum exhibition «Rossiya Delaet Sama» (Russia Makes Its Own) awaited guests. The Festival played host to world famous science communicators and artists from Russia, the United States, Sweden, the Netherlands, Poland and France.
«POLYTECH» festival 2014

3. «Strandbeests» installation by Theo Jansen became the key exhibit at the festival. The exhibition opened on the 24th of May at the Space Pavilion.
Theo Jansen is renowned internationally for his giant sculptures which come into motion with wind power. On a daily basis Theo demonstrated giant beasts coming to life with the specially designed pneumatic system.
festival participants
«STRANDBEESTS» BY THEO JANSEN
EXPOSITION, NETHERLANDS

4. «Dear Albert!» is a stage adaptation of Alan Alda’s novel based on Albert Einstein’s letters. Alan Alda, a six time Emmy winner, premiered «Dear Albert!» in 2008 at the World Science Festival, New York. Since that time the play has not been staged outside U.S.
This year, «Dear Albert!» has been translated into Russian especially for the Polytech Festival and staged by Ruslan Malikov, a renowned Russian theatre director.
«DEAR ALBERT!», WORLD SCIENCE FESTIVAL
REHEARSAL, USA
festival participants

5. Created by the outstanding physicist Brian Green in collaboration with legendary composer Philip Glass and media artist duo Al+Al, World Science Festival Media Opera project «Icarus at the edge of time» became one of the highlights of the festival.
The show was held at the Space Pavilion and featured live orchestra in combination with cutting edge multimedia technology, which helped the audience realize that science can be incredibly interesting, and it is the science progress that brings us closer to understanding and transforming the world.
«ICARUS AT THE EDGE OF TIME» WORLD SCIENCE FESTIVAL
MEDIA OPERA, USA
festival participants

6. Nikolay Polissky, a well-known land artist, presented his «Brilliant Thought» – a mesmerizing installation, part of «Universal Mind» project. Especially for the festival the installation was expanded by a construction set, made of 7000 wooden modules. Every visitor could take a chance at constructing his own land art mini-sculpture or add to the main interactive installation, guided by curating architects.
«BRILLIANT IDEA» BY NIKOLAY POLISSKY
INTERACTIVE PLAYGROUND, RUSSIA
festival participants

7. BESTIARIUM CONSTRUENDUM is a special exhibition for kids, designed to look and feel like archeological digs with pieces of ancient sculptures scattered around. «Precious artifacts» are made of soft, rough to the touch sandstone equipped with invisible magnetic locks which allow to connect the pieces. Kids of all ages can build a beast or a mythical hero from these parts.
BESTIARIUM CONSTRUENDUM:
MYTH CONSTRUCTOR BY ALEXANDER REICHSTEIN
INTERACTIVE EXPOSITION, RUSSIA
festival participants

8. Swedish designer Eric Aberg presented his wooden origami sculptures. In artist’s hands wooden cubes magically transformed into the most impossible forms, folding, connecting, turning and diminishing.
«GHOSTCUBE» BY ERIC ABERG,
PERFORMANCE, SWEDEN
festival participants

9. The Rube Goldberg machine is the mechanism performing very simple tasks in an extremely complicated way, based on chain reaction principle. A team of improvisers of such mechanisms came from San Francisco to participate in «Polytech» Festival. Mike Petrich and his colleagues brought the prototypes of the odd structures and helped visitors participate in creation of a giant complicated mechanism.
EXPLORATORIUM: RUBE GOLDBERG MACHINE ZONE
INTERACTIVE PLAYGROUND, USA
festival participants

10. Polish street theatre presented an outdoor evening performance based on Stanislav Lem’s sci-fi novels. Set in the future, the anti-utopian creation with spectacular costumes and special effects presents the idea of inevitability of total control over human mind. Audience has a glimpse into the future to see the outcome of technological development.
«PLANET LEM»
SCIENCE FICTION PERFORMANCE, POLAND
festival participants

11. French artist Clement Briend presented a special art project created as a mixture of street art, photography and light projection. Tree trunks in the alley across Space Pavillion became screens: projected portraits of renowned Russian scientists looked upon visitors in the dusk.
VIDEO PROJECTION BY CLEMENT BRIEND
FRANCE
festival participants

12. festival in numbers
DAYS
OF FESTIVAL
PLACES FOR SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS, PERFORMANCES AND INSTALLATIONS
POP-SCIENCE LECTURES
LITERS OF
NON-NEWTONIAN FLUID
WATER ROCKETS
CHAIN REACTIONS ACTIVATED
PORTIONS OF LIQUID NITROGEN ICE-CREAM CONSUMED
MONTHS OF PREPARATION
OVER
VISITORS
I-LIKE WRISTLETS

13. PUBLICATIONS
VIEWS OF INTERNET BANNERS
PUBLICATIONS ON FB
USERS – COVERAGE IN FB
TOTAL COVERAGE IN VK
VIEWS OF VIDEO CONTENT ON YOUTUBE.COM
VIDEO REPORTS ON TV (1 CHANNEL, TVC, 5 CANNEL, NTV, MOSCOW 24, CULTURE)
VIEWS OF DEDICATED WEB-PAGE
METRO STIKERS
IN MOSCOW
LEAFLETS
promotion

14. contacts
IVAN BOGANTSEV
DIRECTOR OF POLYTECH FESTIVAL
DEPUTY DIRECTOR
THE POLYTECHNIC MUSEUM
TEL.: +7 495 621 10 41
CELL: +7 916 144 9876
IABOGANTSEV@POLYMUS.RU
BOGANTSEV@YANDEX.RU

15. festival partners