Core members

Marta de Menezes

Director

Marta de Menezes (born 1975) is a Portuguese artist, with a Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Lisbon and a MSt from the University of Oxford. De Menezes is director of Cultivamos Cultura, the leading institution devoted to experimental art in Portugal and Ectopia, dedicated to facilitate the collaborative work between artists and scientists. Marta de Menezes has worked in the intersection of art and biology since the late 90s, in the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, and Portugal, exploring the conceptual and aesthetic opportunities offered by biological sciences for visual representation in the arts. 

Her work has been widely exhibited in major venues in all continents, presented in most anthologies devoted to bioart, discussed in doctoral dissertations, and considered an example of research in the visual arts. Among the most recent international exhibitions, de Menezes was invited for the 2019 Ars Electronica Festival: Out of the Box, and organized two 2020 Ars Electronica Gardens (Lisbon and São Luis). She was invited to be the official representation of Portugal at the London Design Biennale 2016 and exhibited at the Beijing Biennale of New Media Art 2016. De Menezes was nominated in 2015 by Time and Fortune magazines for the Art and Technology Awards 2015. 

Besides her work as artist, de Menezes curated major international exhibitions including for European Capital of Culture (Portugal), Kontejner Festival (Zagreb), Verbeke Foundation (Belgium) and this last three years the editions of FACTT – Transnational and Transdisciplinary Festival of Art and Science that took place in Lisbon, New York, Mexico City, Berlin and Toronto.

Maria Manuela Lopes

Deputy Director

Maria Manuela Lopes is a visual artist whose practice is transdisciplinary, investigating relations of memory and identity informed by the biological sciences and medical research; her work appears in a varied format within the visual arts resulting in multimedia installations, drawings and performances – occasionally including biological materials. Maria Manuela Lopes studied sculpture at FBA-UP and did an MA at Goldsmiths College in London. She has a Doctorate in Fine Arts and New Media at the University of Brighton and UCA-Farnham in the UK. She has developed a Postdoctoral Art Research Project at the University of Aveiro and Porto (ID + Institute of Research in Design, Media and Culture) and i3S Institute of Research and Innovation in Health. She is currently a researcher at i3S Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde  as co-responsible for the Cultural Outreach Art/Science interface of the Institution. She has curated several international exhibitions namely: Matter Thought Time Shape (2018); EmMeio # 9. FBA-UP Museum (2017); Look and Experience: Interference in the Archive, Museum of Penafiel (2017); Enhancement: MAKING SENSE, I3S (2016); Matter and Media of the Invisible: Archeology of Memory, Museum of Penafiel (2016); EmMeio # 7.0, Museum of the City of Aveiro, House of Captaincy, Museum of New Art, Aveiro (2015). She is the author of articles and book chapters in several national and international publications (as well as invited as a speaker), further Her work has been shown nationally and internationally since the 90’s. Maria Manuela Lopes is also co-founder and Deputy Director of Portuguese artistic residency programs: Ectopia – Laboratory of Artistic Experimentation (initially at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science, now operating within various institutions) and Cultivamos Cultura, artistic residency program and research in visual arts in São Luís, Odemira.

Cláudia Figueiredo

Executive Producer

Claudia Figueiredo is a Portuguese producer with a degree in architecture by Universidade Lusiada and a post graduation in Events Marketing and Production. Between 1998 and 2006 was assistant producer of different bands such as 16HP, Soulwax, dEUS and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Since 2007 became executive producer for Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Grinderman and Nick Cave solo performances. From 2011 to 2012 worked as executive producer for the theatre director João Garcia Miguel in Lisbon.

During this period was executive producer for the company’s European project “Islotes en Red”, with the show “As Barcas” which premiered at Guimarães 2012 European Capital of Culture. Claudia was also involved in preparing the company participation in Marseille 2013 European Capital of Culture. Claudia has also been promoter representative for the Portuguese shows of Hugh Laurie, Bombino and Yann Tiersen among others. Since 2013 she is executive producer for Cultivamos Cultura, an organization focused on experimental practices in visual arts, producing artistic residencies, exhibitions and an outdoor cinema cycle in S. Luís, Odemira, as well as international visual arts exhibitions.visuais.

Luís Graça

Science Consultant

Luis Graca has an MD from the University of Lisbon, Portugal; and a PhD in transplant immunology from the University of Oxford, UK. He developed his post-doctoral research first in Oxford and later at the Institute for Child Health Research, in Perth, Australia. He is currently Associate Professor at the Lisbon Medical School, directing a research group in cellular immunology at Instituto de Medicina Molecular.His most significant scientific contributions have been related with the development of strategies to teach the immune system not to reject transplanted organs, also known as immune tolerance. Currently he is extending his findings to the fields of allergy and autoimmunity (where the immune system attacks its own body). Luis Graca is author of 52 research publications, three patents, and co-founder of Acellera Therapeutics. Besides his scientific research he has been interested in the intersection between art and science. In this field Luis Graca has collaborated with several artists, including a long-term relationship with Marta de Menezes (www.martademenezes.com) and he is now scientific advisor for Ectopia and Cultivamos Cultura (www.cultivamoscultura.org) – two Portuguese institutions involved in fostering art-science collaborations. He has three publications in this field, describing the scietist’s view of art-science interactions.
http://www.imm.fm.ul.pt/web/imm/cellularimmunology

Diana Aires

Archive, Education & Mediation Projects

Diana Mordido Aires is a Portuguese artist and artistic and cultural mediator. Her interest in fine arts led her to specialize in Jewellery at António Arroio Artistic School, to study Painting at Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, and to graduate in Artistic and Cultural Mediation at the Lisbon Superior School of Education. The focus of her work has been growing on dialogue and public involvement in artistic production, while collaborating with different entities – Atelier Concorde, Casa das Histórias Paula Rego, Cultivamos Cultura and Centro de Arte e Cultura| Fundação Eugénio de Almeida – in which contemporary art assumes itself as an interactive field, allowing her to produce new discourses, dynamics and activities that aim to bring closer the artworks to the public. She is a co-funder of Portuguese Association of Artistic and Cultural Mediation, and currently works with Cultivamos Cultura where she is creating educational projects and is responsible for the archive.

Sally Santiago

Archive & Communication

Sally Santiago is a Brazilian visual artist and researcher currently living and working in Porto, Portugal. Studied Social Communication in São Paulo (2017) and is currently taking a master’s degree in Contemporary Art at the University of Aveiro. Her projects mainly inhabit the field of video art and experimental and her research focuses permeate debates between human experiences, its processes of change and the connection with spaces -the dwelling in greatness. With experience in communication studies in Brazil (until 2019), collaboration with the Center of Contemporary Art in New Zealand (2020) and currently works with Cultivamos Cultura, Portugal.

María Angélica Contreras

Archive & Audiovisual

María (Bogotá, 1990) is an Anthropologist with a master degree in Cinema. As a filmmaker and producer she is deeply interested in experimental and hybrid films in order to create new visual and social narratives mainly focused in female perspectives. In more than 7 countries her work has been screened. Also enjoys writing film reviews, has written for Shock.co (Colombia, 2020) and European Film Festival (Serbia, 2019). Her filmography includes “The Namelessness Dance” (2020) – Director, “Catarse” (2019) – Co-director, “Mi Amigo Nayem” (2018) – Producer. As director she has won prizes and recognitions: PRÉMIOS SOPHIA ESTUDANTE – PORTUGUESE FILM ACADEMY – 2nd place Best Experimental Short Film – The Namelessness Dance, Portugal, 2021; PORTO FEMME FILM FESTIVAL, CATARSE Prémio Melhor Curta Experimental da Competição de Estudantes, Portugal, 2019.

Nuno Sousa

Archive & Audiovisual

Nuno Sousa is a multimedia student, with a degree in production of interactive content and multimedia, entered the erasmus program where he studied cinema on the Krzysztof Kieslowki Faculty of Radio and Television. His specialization is the modeling and rendering of 3d content, mainly interested in ceramic pieces and portraying people, moments or experiences in digital media. Over time he has collaborated in several projects predominantly as a Photogrametry freelancer, he is now starting a master’s degree in contemporary art.