Sergei Sobyanin opens Biotech Museum at VDNKh

The Biotech Museum and an exhibition of the State Biology Museum named after K. A. Timiryazev opened at VDNKh.  Sergei Sobyanin and Valery Falkov, Minister of Science and Higher Education, attended the opening ceremony.

“In addition to the sports and leisure area, VDNKh gradually turns into a veritable museum city. At the moment, we have 20 museum spaces here, starting with the Beekeeping Museum and finishing with the Cosmonautics and Aviation center. Today, another two stars join this constellation of museums: the K.A. Timiryazev Museum and the Biotech Museum, opened with support from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education,” Mr. Sobyanin revealed. The museum will tell about the past, the present and the future of biotechnologies which certainly play an enormous part in our lives.”

Mr. Falkov pointed out that the Biotech Museum’s purpose is twofold: to promote science and to uphold Moscow’s status as one of the leading global research hubs.

“In order to make global talent want to move here, we need lots of exciting places. Many students and professors from abroad come to Moscow. Setting up an interaction system between museums, universities and research institutes enables us to compete for the best talent at the global level,” the Minister added.

Biotech Museum

The Biotech Museum occupies the restored Pavilion No.30, Microbiology Industry. The project was realized by the Federal Research center “Fundamentals of Biotechnology” of the Russian Academy of Sciences together with biotech companies, and supported by the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

The Museum’s exposition provides a fascinating and illustrative look into biotechnologies and their use in daily life. Visitors enter the main exhibition space through a dark corridor. The slides on its walls extoll the global challenges humanity has to face and overcome to ensure its sustainable technological development going forward (overpopulation, food crisis, drinking water and arable land shortages, waste generation, etc.).

After that, you have a chance to learn the history of the Russian microbiology industry. You can do that in the History Timeline. Biotechnology DNA area.

The central display called From Biodiversity to Industry is dedicated to microorganisms, the key link in biotech processes.

The Future Food. Foodtech display introduces the museum guests to the ways modern biotechnologies can be used in the food industry.

The City Farm display describes city farming with related technologies, and their advantages compared to traditional farming.

When leaving the pavilion, visitors pass through a brightly lit passage while being told what the world could become if we manage to introduce biotechnologies into our production processes in the right ways.

The pavilion also has the following exposition areas:

— Essential oil plants. Here, archive photographs, equipment and devices used in essential oil production are displayed.

— Bioeconomy simulation. Visitors are able to change a number of key parameters (total Earth population, drinking water volume, arable land available, etc.) when interacting with an exhibit and saw how the projected future changes.

A modern multi-functional space created in the museum can be used for seminars, master classes, presentations, conferences and other educational events. The Biotech center sees its objective in bringing together researchers and businesses to develop domestic biotechnologies and run awareness campaigns.

Pavilion N.30, Microbiology Industry, was built in 1939. It was dedicated to oilseed crops originally. A reminder is the building’s carved wooden pediment adorned with various oilseed flowers, including sunflowers.

In 1954, the pavilion was given to the exposition on cotton. The “white gold” motif is present in the main façade mouldings added when the building was renovated in the early 1950s following a design by Valentina Bochkareva.

The façade was also decorated with pillars while interiors got decor such as mouldings, paintings, ornamental panels and carvings of flowers and plants.

In the mid-1960s, the pavilion changed its purpose again, getting the name it bears to this day. The exposition was dedicated to the study and broad use of microorganisms in industry and healthcare, including for making foods and animal feed, antibiotics and peptides.

At the turn of the century, the Microbiology Pavilion was used to hold microbiology, pharma and beauty industry exhibitions. They also accommodated the shops selling seeds, saplings and gardening implements.

The total footprint of the architectural landmark is 782 square meters. In several decades, though, its beauty has worn off.

Repair and restoration of the pavilion started in 2019. They restored the wooden frame of the building, renovating its surviving elements. The ones that have been lost: the carved wooden pediment, 18 sgraffito panels that were painted over, moulded and tiled decorations were all recreated. The ceilings with painted flower were cleaned up and restored.

On top of that, the restoration team recreated interior decorations, re-laid service lines and landscaped the surrounding area. The fountain in the patio, shaped as a bouquet of oilseed flowers with ceramic tiling, was restored.

Exhibition of the State Biology Museum named after K. A. Timiryazev

A permanent exhibition called 12 Signs of the Living, coincided with the State Biology Museum named after K. A. Timiryazev’s 100th anniversary celebrations, opened in the restored pavilion No.31, Geology, in May 2022. The exposition contemplates the scientific perspective on life while offering answers to the key questions troubling virtually everyone.

Science does not have a simple and short answer to the question what the living is and how it is different from the non-living. Twelve sections of the exhibition illustrate 12 main criteria of the living (living/non-living, no living without cells, organism as an open system, movement is life, diversity, rhythmicity, discreteness, procreation, metabolism, chemistry of life, heredity, growth and development). The unique approach involves pop-science narrative being presented to kids and adults by biologists and modern artists.

Pieces of modern art created specifically for the exposition, along with about 650 museum exhibits, are on display. You can use a digital guide with augmented reality features to traverse the exhibition.

The Geology pavilion was built in 1954, following a design by Leonid Pavlov. Initially, it was called Flax, Hemp and Other Fiber Crops. A test venue to demonstrate machinery used in flax farming in processing was nearby. Starting 1956, the pavilion housed an exhibition dedicated to the achievements of fiber and wool, and later – of the flax and wool industries.

However, its specialization soon changed drastically. Mineral and ore variety, diamond and coal deposits, the latest breakthrough in geophysics methods and technology: all of that was on display at the Geology exposition launched in 1959.

Using an electric-power map, visitors could learn about the major natural resources production areas like the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly, Yakut Diamonds, Turgai Deposits, etc. An open-air space next to the pavilion was used to display drilling, mining and geophysics machinery.

In the 1990s, the exposition was shut down, its facilities rented to shops and storage facilities.

In 2019-2022, the historical building underwent a comprehensive restoration. During that operation, fragments of lineart in the minimalist style of the late 1950s – early 1960s were discovered on the pillars inside the pavilion. Among them were images of a helicopter, a floating dredge, a camp with tents, geologists in the field, rocks and trees.

Upcoming launches at VDNKh

An ambitious project to revitalize VDNKh has been underway since 2014. In that time, 26 historical pavilions and other cultural heritage sites have been rehabilitated.

Right now, restoration works are underway in 15 cultural heritage sites, including pavilion No. 1 Central, No. 2 People's Education (former pavilion North Caucasus), No. 4 Biology (former Estonian SSR pavilion, handed over to the Republic of Kyrgyzstan), No. 6 Chemistry (former pavilion of the Lithuanian SSR, handed over to the Republic of Abkhazia), No. 8 Young Naturalists, No. 15 Radio Electronics and Communications (former Volga pavilion), No. 35 Glavtabak, No. 51 Meat Industry (former Glavmyaso Pavilion), No. 59 Cereals (former Moscow Region pavilion), No. 61 Tsentrosoyuz, No. 64 Optics (former Leningrad and North-West pavilion), No. 66 Republic of Uzbekistan (former Soviet Culture pavilion, Uzbek SSR), No. 68 Armenia (former Siberia pavilion), Leto Cafe (former Chainaya (Tea) pavilion), and the Green Theater.

In the nearest future, VDNKh plans to launch:

— Moscow Sun, the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe (140 meters high) with 30 roofed cabins capable of holding up to 15 people each. One turn would be about 19 minutes long;

— Center of National Equestrian Traditions (pavilions No. 41, 42, 43) with a field for horse-riding competitions, exhibitions and interactive museum of the horse;

— Möbius Strip pedestrian walk, about 300 meters long, rising around 8 meters above the ground;

— new museum expositions.