Diane Sousa da Silva Lima

Diane Sousa da Silva Lima (born 1986) is a Brazilian independent curator, writer, and researcher based in São Paulo and Salvador, Brazil. As an Afro-Brazilian feminist voice, Lima challenges hierarchical paradigms in contemporary art, pushing for artistic production that is anticolonial and antiracist.

Early life and education Diane Sousa da Silva Lima was born in Mundo Novo, Bahia, Brazil, in 1986. Lima’s work and values were strongly influenced by her upbringing. The daughter of a woman named Danúsia, who was both a unionist and a banker and who took on the roles of mother and father, Lima grew up surrounded by female figures in an environment where conversations about the Black movement and the women’s movement were ever-present. to showcase the work of Black artists and discuss Afro-Brazilian identity and representation in contemporary art. The event brought together artists from different fields of the visual arts to consider the institutional invisibility imposed on Afro-Brazilian culture.

In 2018, Lima participated in the Valongo Festival Internacional da Imagem (Valongo International Image Festival), in São Paulo, where she presented a collective exhibition called Não me aguarde na retina (Don’t wait for me in the retina). Featuring predominantly women, the exhibition explored the forgotten ruins of the seaport region of Santos, São Paulo. Also in 2018, Lima took part in the residency program for curatorial investigation promoted by the independent platform, FelipaManuela, along with the creation center Matadero, in Madrid, Spain. In 2019, Lima collaborated with choreographer Mário Lopes during the PlusAfrot residency program in Munich, Germany. This residency focused on questions related to colonial trauma, displacement, and identity re-signification as they pertain to the lives of Black individuals.