Marta de Menezes

Artistic 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

Cultural and Strategic Manager

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.

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

Emma Hallemans

Cultural Mediator and Community Liaison

Emma Hallemans is a Belgian scientist and cultural mediator. Her interest in putting both natural science and human science in conversation with each other led her to finish an MA (2024) in Management of the Arts and Culture (UCP) after her MA (2022) in Biochemistry and Biotechnology (KUL). As a cultural mediator she searches for a nexus between artists, scientist and audiences. In an attempt at identifying with these three groups, she also explores multiple fields of arts. As a photographer she contributed to a project about mental health for the Belgian governmental youth department “MIJNLeuven”. Besides, she has photographed multiple exhibitions, interviews and concerts in both Belgium, Sweden and Lisbon. In Sweden, she also contributed to the musical project “Cloudgazers” (2022) and created a micro-exhibition at Galaxy Protonen (2022). Furthermore, in Lisbon she co-created an installation (2023) at Bairro em Festa and curated micro-exhibitions (2024) at both Católica and Rizoma. Her research interests lie in Cultural Theory, Music Studies, Visual Culture, Science Philosophy and Social Anthropology. Her artistic practices mostly explore visual arts, installations and sound.

Anna Isaak-Ross

Executive Director

Anna Isaak-Ross holds a BFA from the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. After working with artists at Amorphic Robot Works in New York City, Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, Colorado, and as an intern to Juan Quezada in Mata Ortiz, Mexico, she became the Studio Manager of the Art & Design Department at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. While there, Anna managed the traditional art studios and fabrication lab activities. She has extensive experience with curatorial work, bringing major exhibitions to University Crossing Gallery as well as galleries in Portugal and Spain. At present, Anna lives in São Luis, Portugal, as the Studio Manager and Coordinator at Cultivamos Cultura.  Her work on site involves archiving the art collection as well as managing the residency programming. Her expertise is managing lab equipment, art studios, facilities and galleries. She excels at curatorial practices used to present and preserve many types of artwork.

As an artist, Anna’s primary medium is photography and new media. Her photos and films have been exhibited internationally. Her work reveals the natural world by using her personal physical form as a conduit for exploration. Many of her self-portraits explore an archetypal understanding of self in tamed, ruined as well as wild landscapes. Carving out identities with light and shadow, she invites viewers out of reality and into a fable-like arc of their choosing.

Nuno Sousa

Digitization and Research Specialist

Nuno Sousa is an artist, teacher, and researcher specializing in 3D digitization techniques.

Graduated with a degree in Interactive and Multimedia Content Production from the Higher Institute of Educational Sciences of Douro in 2020, Master’s in Contemporary Artistic Creation from the University of Aveiro in 2022, and currently pursuing a PhD in Artistic Creation at the University of Aveiro.
He is a researcher at CI-ISCE (ISCE Douro Research Center) where he develops research in 3D Content Creation: Virtual Reality; 3D Content Modeling and Rendering.
He has been teaching in the area of 3D Modeling at the Higher Institute of Educational Sciences of Douro and is part of the “Cultivamos Cultura” team, where he focuses on developing digitization methodologies and contributes to the creation of the institution’s digital archive.

Tal Alkalay

Photographer & Cinematographer