CMS Bergamo

Two articles in the L’Eco Bergamo, Bergamo, caccia ai vandali che di notte imbrattano il centro and Via San Bernardino imbrattata, Facebook incastra un graffitaro, mention the tag “CMS” that can easily be seen around Bergamo. One of the kids that make up the “CMS crew” was identified on camera as he wasn’t wearing a hood (incappucciato). Other than that, not much more is said about the ragazzo “boy” caught or the rest of the crew. Is this crew still active? Am I just seeing left over CMS writing? What does CMS mean? It sounds like a syndrome or an computer programming language form 20 years ago.

The article I graffitari a Bergamo in the Bergamopost talks about the balance between art and vandalism. The subtitle of the article is sappiate che è arte riconosciuta, which translates to “know that it’s recognized as art.”

These articles were a way to study some of theItalian nouns and verbs used to describe graffiti and graffiti artists.

Verbs
incappucciare - to be hooded -> incappucciatocamuffare – to disguise
deturpare – to spoil or mar -> deturpamentofirmare – to sign
imbrattare – to stain, soil, or dirty -> imbrattamentostrizzare – to push to the limits, as in property owners are sick and tired of the graffiti

Nouns
bomboletta spray – spray can
cappucccio – hood
carattere – character as in “C”, “M”, or “S”.
crew – graffiti crew -> gruppo/i di graffitarigiubbotto – jacket
graffiti – graffiti, a piece of graffiti could be called a graffito
graffitaro – one who does graffiti -> many are graffitari
gruppo - group
immagine - image
muro – wall
scritta - writing
street artist – street artist, sometimes referred to as artisti di strada
tag – tag
vandalo – vandal
writer –the English word, as in gruppi di writers or un writer.