O espaço e as formas

The work of Adalberto Dias, considered in its time span and the extraordinary variety of project opportunities and themes that it crosses, gives us the idea of a route very coherent, where each advance testifies to the construction of a process of interpretation of the reality capable of exploring with extreme refinement the plurality of expressions it finds. Each project is configured, even before being the definite and determined proposal, as a true exploration aimed at establishing the rules underlying the choices. Far from the notion of canon and alien to the application of models pre-established, the practice of the project is based on a refined exercise of reading and interpreting the place, that finds its main medium in drawing, a true instrument of appropriation of reality. The sketch is a fundamental element of the project of drawing; as Dias says, “Everything begins with a line”, a line that initially flows freely and multiplies, joining other lines, drawing an arabesque of hypotheses and senses, outlining shapes, chasing meanings, questioning and forcing reality, modifying the initial intentions according to the local, outlining ideas and then verifying them with the rigor of the technical instruments of representation. A true moment of project conception, the sketch is capable of suggesting a new order of the reality, making explicit and reinforcing the complexity and the meanings of the place. The route is highly experimental and the words of Dias, “I still do as I saw it done and how I learned it”, clearly echo those of Alexandre Alves Costa, the famous exponent of Escola do Porto: “We always learn to project, projecting”.