Together with Gibson Guitars and The ABC Trust (Action for Brazil’s Children Trust), Dazed presents A Força da Rua (Force of the Street), an exclusive contemporary street art project that brings together 12 of the finest artists from Brazil and the UK. Including Calma, Speto and Titi Freak from Sao Paulo, and D*Face, Inkie and Remi/Rough from London. With the artists painting 12 of Gibson’s iconic guitars, A Força da Rua launches with a celeb London charity art auction and exhibition with all the money raised going into the ABC Trust, who help raise funds and awareness for Brazil’s most vulnerable children.

Founded in 1998 by Jimena and Jimmy Page (from Led Zeppelin) the ABC Trust supports initiatives such as AA Criança, based in the Sé region of downtown Sao Paulo. Close to 12,000 homeless children live on the streets in Sé and the AA Criança inspires to get children out of this situation through aid, drop-in day centres, human rights workshops, educating through art and culture projects. Graffiti art, dance and music are such a powerful force in Brazilian culture and organisations like AA Criança realise that Sao Paulo’s street kids are much more likely to identify with, and be empowered by art and music than formal educational systems.

The project has been documented by film director Lorna Lavelle, who visited AA Criança in February and interviewed all the artists involved. Lorna’s A Força da Rua film follows her work for Vivienne Westwood and Amnesty, Alexander McQueen, UNKLE and her forthcoming Brazilian and British art documentary, Weapon of Choice.

The full list of artists are: Calma, Titi Freak, Speto, Daniel Melim, Ramon Martins, Tinho (from Brazil) and D*Face, Kid Acne, Inkie, Remi/Rough, Will Barras and Pure Evil (from UK). A Força da Rua launches with an exhibition of the 12 guitars (and a collection of exclusive prints) at east London’s theprintspace (in association with Exhibit X) on Wednesday April 22nd, following with the auction a week later at the Cuckoo Club on Thursday April 29th.

A Força da Rua is also launching a design competition to create your own guitar artwork inspired by the project, with the winning entry judged by a panel including the Tate Modern’s Cedar Lewishohn, author Tristan Manco, Dazed’s visual arts editor Fran Gavin, director Lorna Lavelle and UK graf kingpin Inkie. The winner will bag themselves a Gibson Les Paul Melody Maker and will be featured at the A Força da Rua exhibition. Full competition details here.

A Força da Rua Exhibition, Open to public from April 23rd to May 12th
theprintspace, 74 Kingsland Road, London E2 8DL

A Força da Rua Auction, April 29th
The Cuckoo Club, Swallow Street, London W1B 4EZ