The Carioca Youth Action in Urban Art project attracted the participation of 32 young cariocas from 24 communities. Divided into eight collaborative teams, the artists created different urban art pieces which reflected their thoughts and talents. They were guided by urban artists Márcio SWK, Guga Ferraz and Alexandre Vogler. The competition was promoted by the Fundo Carioca (Carioca Fund), coordinated by Charles Siqueira of Coletivo Galera.com, and sponsored by LCM Commodities of New York as well as SESI-Cidadania/FIRJAN.
The award ceremony for the project Concurso Ação Jovem na Arte Urbana Carioca (Carioca Youth Action in Urban Art) was held on October 26th in Rio de Janeiro. The teams celebrated their achievements with a party filled with performances to complement the backdrop of the artists’ works: percussionists “Meninas do Nós” as well as the artists “Panteras Negras” and “Pérolas Negras” from the group “Nós do Morro” from Vidigal. At the event, the young artists had the opportunity to speak about the challenges of working together with other graffiti artists, painters, sculptors and urban interventionists throughout the competition.
Representatives from the top three entries were invited to New York by LCM, where they presented their works, as well as the works of the other teams in the competition, at the Galeria Melissa NY in SOHO. Artists in attendance included: Leandro Moura Pinto and Paula Alcantara Padua, who contributed to the winning entry, “The Gold Shack”; Galdino dos Santos Vitor, representing the second place entry, “We Criticize and Make”; and Thiago Rodrigues da Silva, representing the third place entry,”Trojan-Horse.”
