Channeldraw n°2 – Active Art Yearbook 2025 is a 136-page full-color volume that captures a year of art and social engagement through drawings, comics, portraits, and visual projects created in 2025. Each copy includes a signed and numbered print by Gianluca Costantini, making the book a unique object for those who follow and appreciate engaged art and visual storytelling of social struggles.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Ai Weiwei, Amnesty International Italia, Chris Hedges, Comitato preti contro il genocidio, Comune di Bologna, Conner Drennen, Conor Fortune, CPJ (Committee to Protect Journalists), Diego Areso, Don Andrea Caporale, Elena Cosentino, Elisa Pierandrei, Elettra Stamboulis, Emiliano Ponzi, Festival delle Culture di Ravenna, FIFDH (Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights), Fiza Pirani, Fondazione Giulia Cecchettin, Front Line Defenders, Giulio Bodini, Heinrich Böll Foundation, INSI (London), International School Centre in Ulfborg, Julie Trébault, Laura Longobardi, Lorenzo Balbi, Marwa Ahmed, Matteo Lepore, Mona Abuamara, Nick Hilden, Nika Dubrovsky, Occupy Wall Street, Paola Colombo, Pecore Ribelli (Berna), Peter Schwarz, Philipp Straub, Priscilla Grim, Ravenna Festival, Refaat Mobile Library, Riccardo Noury, Rima Al-Azar, SalottoNY, Sarah Leah Whitson, Seth Tobocman, Stamperia Albicocco, The New Arab, Vera Benatar, Vicino/Lontano Premio Terzani, Wahaj Bani Moufleh, Yanis Varoufakis, Yousef Salman
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Alex Kroke, Andrea Sabbadini, Claudia Rolando, Elisa Pierandrei, Fiza Pirani, Kristian Skeie Leo Brogioni, Lorenzo Scaldaferro, Luca D’Agostino, Luca Nostri, Massmedia.it, Michele Lapini, Stephan Röhl.
Dedicated to the artist Asantur Baharian (Athens 1924 – 1990).
He studied painting and lithography with Othon Pervolarakis and later at the Athens School of Fine Arts under Dimitrios Biskinis and Umvertos Argyros.
A political prisoner since 1945, in 1958 he sent his works to the Youth Salon of the Zygos gallery, where he held his first solo exhibition in 1961. He exhibited in Greece and abroad, receiving honorary distinctions. He taught graphic arts at the Vakalo School (1961-1967) and in 1969 founded the Ora Artistic and Cultural Center.
In his oil paintings, he depicted machines, interiors, and political prisoners in a realist style. He also cultivated watercolor, painting poetic landscapes. He worked in decoration, graphic arts, advertising, book illustration, and wrote articles on art.
The yearbook features a wide range of content: a comic on Chinese illustrator He Youxhi; portraits and stories of international figures including Richard Medhurst, Laila Soueif, Mzia Amaglobeli, Yanis Varoufakis, Mahvash Sabet, Parnia Abbasi, Albert Omondi, Hiba Abu Nada, and many others; portraits of journalists killed in Sudan and other conflict zones; drawings made for global events such as the Munich Security Conference, Art for Social Imagination with the David Graeber Institute, and the Spring Revolution in Myanmar for Amnesty Italy.
t also includes portraits of journalists killed in 2024 for the News Safety Institute (INSI) in London, photos and texts from international events like FIFDH 2025 in Geneva, the Christ Died in Gaza event in Rome, and Atlanta’s Vigil for the Fallen Journalists of Gaza, as well as critical essays on war and human rights, such as “Starvation as a Strategy: The War Beyond the Battlefield” and “Simplicissimus: The Legendary Satirical Voice of Fin-de-Siècle Munich.”
The book features drawings for conferences and international projects like the 25th Foreign Policy Conference for the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Salotto di New York, portraits of operators of the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) killed in Palestine, and exclusive photographs from Stamperia Albicocco in Udine for the printing of Zodiac by Ai Weiwei.
Channeldraw n°2 is not only a record of a year of artistic production but also a visual and narrative archive of global events and social struggles, combining art, memory, and activism. Each page demonstrates the power of drawing to tell stories of resistance, commitment, and awareness, making this volume a unique work in the landscape of contemporary engaged art.
📦 The book is available for order or can be picked up at the studio.
📖 Format: 20 x 26 cm
🖼 Pages: 136, full color
🌍 Language: English
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. Continue
