Art & Science
We are also developing a series of Art & Science projects pending on financiation, bringing together artistic practice, scientific research and different ways of understanding the world.
These projects are aimed to explore the spaces between disciplines — where archaeology, anthropology, cinema, visual arts and scientific inquiry can meet and generate new questions, narratives and forms of knowledge.
A central collaborator in this line of work is Oderay Ponce de León Bello, an audiovisual producer and creator with a background in archaeology and cultural landscape research. Her practice brings together filmmaking, research, curation and interdisciplinary approaches to image and knowledge.
Through these collaborations, Cosmic-Brain aims to explore how artistic and scientific perspectives can inform one another: how archives, landscapes, material traces, images and memories can become tools for investigating both the past and the present.
Our Art & Science projects are conceived as spaces of experimentation and dialogue, connecting research with artistic creation and opening new ways of thinking about our relationship with culture, history, technology and the world around us.
Oderay Ponce de León Bello
Film Producer · Curator · Cultural Researcher · Archaeology & Visual Arts
Oderay Ponce de León Bello is a Cuban film producer, curator and cultural researcher whose practice develops at the intersection of cinema, visual arts, archaeology, cultural heritage and interdisciplinary research.
Her work is particularly concerned with the relationship between images, territories, memory and material culture, exploring cinema not only as a medium for representation but also as a tool for research, documentation and the production of knowledge.
She studied Cultural Historic Heritage Management and Conservation at the University of Havana and later pursued postgraduate studies and research in archaeology and cinema in Spain. She was a student of Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola (EQZE) in San Sebastián, where her practice developed towards film curatorship, archival research and expanded forms of cinematic and artistic research.
Her professional trajectory includes film production, curatorial projects, archaeological research, community-based cultural projects, audiovisual production, exhibition work and interdisciplinary artistic research.
Education
Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola — EQZE
San Sebastián, Spain
Postgraduate film studies / curatorship and research.
Oderay was part of EQZE's curatorship programme, developing research around cinema, archives, exhibition and contemporary film practices.
University of Havana — Cuba
Cultural Historic Heritage Management and Conservation
Her initial academic training in cultural heritage established the basis for her subsequent work connecting archaeology, territory, memory and audiovisual practices.
Archaeology of Cultural Landscapes: Research and Management
Universidad Internacional de Andalucía
Oderay received support for postgraduate study in the programme Arqueología de los Paisajes Culturales: Investigación y Gestión.
Professional Experience
Film Producer
Oderay has worked as a producer in Cuban and international independent cinema, collaborating with filmmakers and production companies on documentary and experimental film projects.
Her production credits include films that have circulated internationally through festivals and cinematheques.
Terranova
2021 · Cuba · 50 min
Directed by Alejandro Pérez Serrano and Alejandro Alonso Estrella.
Producer: Oderay Ponce de León Bello
Terranova was presented internationally, including at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and was subsequently screened at film festivals and cultural institutions. The film explores Havana as a changing urban landscape through architecture, memory, images and speculative visions of the city.
Abyssal / Abisal
2021 · Documentary
Directed by Alejandro Alonso.
Production: Boris Prieto, Oderay Ponce de León and Alejandro Alonso
Produced through Vega Alta Films and La Concretera Producciones.
The film follows a worker in a ship-scrapping environment in western Cuba, exploring memory, labour, landscape, disappearance and the threshold between the material and the spectral.
Abyssal was selected by numerous international documentary and film festivals, including Visions du Réel, Documenta Madrid, DOK Leipzig, Raindance, Clermont-Ferrand and others. It received the Golden Dove for Best Documentary Short Film at DOK Leipzig.
Archaeology & Cultural Heritage
Oderay's archaeological work forms an important foundation of her interdisciplinary practice.
Her experience includes archaeological research, cultural landscape studies and projects in which archaeological methods intersect with audiovisual documentation and artistic creation.
Expedición
2016–2017 · Maisí, Guantánamo, Cuba
Researcher and audiovisual producer in an archaeological project carried out in the rural community of Pata, in the municipality of Maisí.
The project combined archaeological research with audiovisual documentation and fieldwork.
Torreón de Jaruco Archaeological Project
2017–2018 · Cuba
Researcher in the archaeological project centred on the Torreón de Jaruco.
ARKREA
2016–2018
Founder of ARKREA, described by EQZE as a creative archaeological project.
ARKREA represents an early example of her interest in moving beyond conventional archaeological documentation towards creative and interdisciplinary forms of research.
Community & Cultural Projects
Akokán
2016–2020 · Havana, Cuba
Founder of the local development project Akokán, a community-based initiative developed with residents of the Los Pocitos informal settlement in Havana Province.
The project brought cultural and community development perspectives into a territory characterised by complex social and spatial conditions.
Film Curatorship
Oderay has developed film-curatorial projects connecting cinema with contemporary artistic and cultural research.
She worked as a curator and cultural organiser in Cuba and later continued developing curatorial practices in Spain.
Eskolatik — María Sabina. Mujer Espíritu
Tabakalera · San Sebastián · 2021
Curated by Amaranta Díaz, Oderay Ponce de León Bello and Valery Rojas.
The programme presented Nicolás Echevarría's María Sabina, Mujer Espíritu (1979), using the film as a starting point for questions around ethnography, indigenous knowledge, territory, healing and the representation of cultural practices.
Expanded Cinema, Research & Artistic Practice
One of the most distinctive aspects of Oderay's current practice is her work at the boundary between film, research and contemporary art.
She has collaborated on projects where the moving image becomes an investigative instrument rather than simply a cinematic product.
Etno-hauntology
Oderay is a co-author of the research/creative project “Etno☰hauntología. Espectros de la imagen y territorios aurales”, together with Rafael Ramírez and Carlos X Terán Vargas.
The project develops concepts around imagework, ethnographic research, hauntology, spectrality and aural territories, using the structure of a film notebook as a space for research and speculative creation.
The authors describe these principles as the basis for a collective line of research and creation applied to installation, research and curatorial projects.
The project was published in 2024 in Post(s) / Universidad San Francisco de Quito and later appeared in Fantasma Material, a publication dedicated to contemporary cinema.
Curatorial Research
As part of EQZE, Oderay participated in the research project Zinemaldia 70: All Possible Histories, investigating overlooked histories and professional roles within the San Sebastián International Film Festival.
The resulting exhibition examined questions of gender, class, labour, institutional history and the representation of women working behind the scenes of the festival.
Early Cultural & Audiovisual Work
Before moving to Spain, Oderay was active in Cuba's cultural and audiovisual scene.
Her work included:
Imago ISA Arts Festival
2012–2013
Member of the organising committee of the 13th and 14th editions of the Imago ISA Arts Festival.
Puños Arriba Cuban Rap Awards
2013–2014
Producer and assistant director within the organising committee of the 5th and 6th editions.
Cine Campus
General coordinator of the Cine Campus film-debate project at San Gerónimo University College in Havana.
International Festival of New Latin American Cinema
Collaborated with the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana, including work as part of the foreign press corps.
Axis Visual Lab
Worked as a producer for Axis Visual Lab in a videomapping exhibition created for the opening of the 34th International Festival of New Latin American Cinema.
EICTV — Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión
Collaborated as a producer with the International School of Film and Television of San Antonio de los Baños, one of the major film-training institutions in Latin America.