Political graphics by Gianluca Costantini for DiEM25

The Italian activist and artist has long fought political battles through thought-provoking drawings and has now produced a stunning e-book for DiEM25, whose activities he has accompanied since 2016

It’s not easy to retrace my path in DiEM25. I think it all started in 2015 during the Greek economic crisis, when I started drawing what was going on in the country, thanks to the knowledge of my wife Elettra Stamboulis, and we made a short comic entitled “Who’s who” in which the characters of this tragic comedy were depicted.

The character that stuck with me the most was Yanis Varoufakis, and even after he left the Syriza government, I continued to follow what he said and did on social media. I first came across DiEM25 in 2016 and was fascinated by how it merged politics and culture. Some people I had followed and admired had joined this new movement, like Julian Assange – about whom I published a graphic novel in 2011 – Ai Weiwei with whom I had been collaborating for a few years, Brian Eno, Ken Loach and many others. Continue

Gianluca Costantini

Gianluca Costantini is an activist and artist who for years fought his battles through the drawing. Accused of terrorism by the Turkish government, he angered many French readers for a short comic about Charlie Hebdo‘s terrorist story. He actively collaborates with ActionAid, Amnesty, Emergency, ARCI and Oxfam organizations. His drawings mapped the story of the HRW Film Festival in London, the FIFDH Human Rights Festival in Geneva, the Human Rights Festival of Milan and the International Festival in Ferrara.

Since 2016 she has accompanied the activities of DiEM25 Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, movement founded by Yanis Varoufakis and actively collaborates with the artist Ai Weiwei.

In 2017 he was nominated for the European Citizenship Awards. In 2019 he received the Art and Human Rights award from Amnesty International.

He has published comic stories on “Internationale“, “Pagina99“, “D la Repubblica”, “Narcomafie” and “Corriere della Sera“ in Italy, on “LeMan“ in Turkey, on “Courrier International“ and “Le Monde Diplomatique“ in France, on “World War Illustrated” in the United States, on the Australia “Mekong Review“. He collaborates with the American information portals CNN, Words Without Borders and Muftah Magazine,  The New Arab and the Dutch Drawing the Times. Collaborates with the italian newspaper “Domani“.

His latest books are Patrick Zaki, una storia egiziana for Feltrinelli, Libia for Mondadori, Fedele alla linea, Diario segreto di Pasolini, Pertini fra le nuvole, Arrivederci Berlinguer, Cena con Gramsci, Julian Assange dall’etica hacker a Wikileaks for BeccoGiallo Edizioni and Cattive abitudini, L’ammaestratore di Istanbul e Bronson Drawings for Giuda edizioni, Officina del macello for Eris Edizioni and Le cicatrici tra i miei denti for NdA edizioni.