Dina Dias

Who is Dina?

Dina is a Portuguese woman who has lived in Algarve for 20 years, born in Alentejo, which is a very beautiful area of this country where my family lives. I think I am a cheerful and funny person, who likes the arts and who is finding herself in this environment.

I am a woman, but a woman who still has a lot of parts of a girls and this is what I transfer to my visual language and after that to my determination as a woman, that I have to avenge a little bit this very masculinized world in which is hard to stand up for our causes when we have fingers pointed at things that are not so visible for other eyes.

I think I came very small in this world, but my purpose is big, almost as a pioneer which is alerting the consciousness to reach even if you have to let go later, because I have, at least according to those who know me well, this detachment. This is it.

What would you like to do when you grow up?

I never grow up. I don’t want to grow up. Picasso said many times that it took him 80 years to learn how to paint like a child; for me this is very important, to keep our inner child awake and talk a lot about it as well, because this is what makes us shine and what makes us different, unique. Being unique is extremely important in life, and growing up will just make us boring adults, creating a pattern that will almost all the time be reproduced and we will all be the same if we don’t keep our childish self awake.

My dream is to work every day with the same energy, my process is sudden and very intuitive. So, in order to achieve this project, during this process I put my art in the service of a cause, a community and, if possible, I can make an internal change for the people, which is a difficult thing to do, but at least in terms of dreams and helping other people to discover their gifts I think art is a great promoter of that and it can heal, even though is a strong word; healing through art is hard, but it is possible.

What is the first thing on your mind when you think about Faro?

The sea; for me the sea is a monument, the biggest monument of Algarve.

What would be the soundtrack of your life story?

Ennio Morricone – the soundtrack of the “Cinema Paradiso” movie.

What is the place in Faro you are most connected to? Why?

I like the Old City, the walls that lead to different arcs, the entrances, because they are doors that open to those who arrive here. For me, coming from Alentejo, Faro is a city with open doors for newcomers. The phrase that says “you are from Faro, you are farense” may be as well changed to “you are in Faro, you are farense”, as whoever is residing here also brings their origins to the city.