A visual memorial for journalists killed in Gaza, a gesture of memory and resistance
Sanremo, Wednesday, October 22, 2025 – As part of Tenco 2025 – Italian Singer-Songwriter Festival, the exhibition “In the Crosshairs of Memory” by artist and activist Gianluca Costantini, curated by Lorena Viale, will be inaugurated on Wednesday, October 22 at 5:00 PM in Via Palma 16, Sanremo.
Since October 7, 2023, following the Hamas attack and Israel’s ensuing harsh retaliation, Gianluca Costantini has begun portraying journalists killed in the Gaza Strip. In close collaboration with the CPJ – Committee to Protect Journalists in New York, he has built, day by day, a visual memorial.
Costantini’s project does not aim to restore what has been lost — an impossible task — but stands as a gesture of care and memory for those no longer with us, individuals who chose as their life mission the act of witnessing the world.
The portraits have already been used in protest actions in Atlanta, New York, Berlin, Seattle, and Naples, as is often the case with the artist’s projects. The drawings become tools of communication, placed in the hands of citizens who mobilize in distant locations to demand truth, justice, and, in this case, a ceasefire.
Costantini’s careful work of researching photographs of the journalists is an act of profound gratitude and collective ritual, preserving the faces of those we hold dear, even if we never knew them personally.
The project closely follows the cartography of killings documented by the CPJ, cites its sources, and serves as an explicit political warning: the slaughter of those wielding a camera rather than a gun has reached unprecedented levels, amounting to a systematic extermination of the media in the Palestinian territories, particularly in Gaza.
The inauguration will be an opportunity to meet the artist and explore his work, which testifies to the violence against those who report the truth and underscores the importance of defending the right to know.
Event details:
Curator: Lorena Viale
When: Wednesday, October 22, 2025, 5:00 PM
Where: Via Palma 16, Sanremo
