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As part of La Notte degli Archivi 2026, the annual initiative by Archivissima dedicated to celebrating and preserving archival heritage, Accademia del Caffè Espresso explored this year’s theme, “What Isn’t There.” The evening reflected on the role of museums and archives, and how absence, fragments, and what has been lost can become new starting points for telling stories, preserving identity, and keeping memory alive.

The event also marked the opening of Keeping Track: The Rediscovered Practices of Officine Fratelli Bambi, an exhibition dedicated to the revival of traditional metalworking techniques and the ongoing effort to pass these skills on to a new generation through the work of the artisans at Officine Fratelli Bambi.

The exhibition takes inspiration from a notebook kept by one of the skilled craftspeople at Officine Fratelli Bambi. Inside are handwritten notes documenting materials, production techniques, and solutions to the challenges encountered throughout the making process. As the team worked to rediscover sheet metal craftsmanship that had gradually disappeared over time, recording each breakthrough became essential. Every lesson learned, every small trick, and every detail worth remembering was carefully written down so that this knowledge could live beyond the present.

Their craft is built on experience. It is through repetition—day after day, gesture after gesture—that a deep understanding of materials, processes, machines, and products is developed. During those early stages of experimentation and learning, putting this knowledge on paper became a way to preserve something invaluable: a living body of expertise that can now be shared with future generations.

Starting from the story of this notebook and the notes behind five custom machines created by Officine Fratelli Bambi—for both commercial and home espresso machines—the exhibition invites visitors into the slower rhythm of craftsmanship. It explores how creativity often comes from drawing inspiration from unexpected places and personal passions, finding solutions through curiosity, patience, and skill. In this way, the workshop becomes a modern evolution of the traditional artisan studio: a place where craftsmanship, knowledge, and creativity come together, and where every gesture becomes an act of creation.

“The workshop is shaped by its artisans, but the artisans are shaped by the workshop. It’s a circle that completes itself.”