This research project is a photographic collection of written insults, found in the streets of Palermo (my hometown) and around Italy.

 

SUCA is a typical insult in southern Italy (it means “suck it”). Especially in Palermo, SUCA is everywhere: it is widely used in verbal language and is also written on every wall in sight, aimed at passers-by. Its constant use in popular culture over a long time makes it interesting from an anthropological point of view: “If I ask a local to write something without thinking too much, no matter how, he can have a piece of chalk or an electronic brain, he will have no doubt, because the first thing that comes to his mind is only SUCA.” (Fulvio Abbate, Zero Maggio a Palermo)