“BioArtLab - Museum-Forecast” exhibit opens at Lobachevsky University

On October 24, the opening of the unique exhibition “BioArtLab - Museum-Forecast” took place at Lobachevsky University. The project, a winner of the 2017 “Museum Without Borders” competition, was implemented with a grant from the Potanin Foundation. The event was attended by Nizhny Novgorod popularizers of science, UNN Rector Evgeny Chuprunov, representatives of the State Center for Contemporary Art "Arsenal", and representatives of the Nizhny Novgorod museum community. The "BioArtLab" exhibit is devoted to modern biology, a research area being actively developed at the UNN.

The exhibition space is a universal platform for student seminars, debates, excursions and lectures. A tour for the guests was conducted by Evgeny Strelkov, an employee of the UNN Museum, who is the project manager. After the opening ceremony, the event continued with a debate on the topic: “Biological aging of the organism”. The main goal of the project is to popularize the achievements of modern science among the wide audience, to attract future researchers to the university, and to develop interest in science among high school students. The central part of the exhibition are the items from the zoological collection of the UNN Museum demonstrating the development of the nervous system in animals. Museum exhibits are complemented by popular science films about innovative research that Lobachevsky University scientists carry out in the field of neuroscience and optical theranostics. The exposition also includes several objects of modern art in the genres of sculpture, video art, as well as artist’s books, graphics and sound compositions on the themes of biology and medicine. Thus, the “BioArtLab” exhibit connects the scientific and artistic approaches to the study of living nature and develops cross-disciplinary links between the natural and human sciences. It is a growth zone for new creative initiatives related to the popularization of knowledge.