In Milan, people paint with Kimbo coffee thanks to the art of Francesco Pipitone Cortile Napoletano has transformed coffee into an artistic tool

In Naples, the controra is that moment of the afternoon when the streets empty out, the shutters come down, and the day seems to grant itself a pause. On Saturday, October 17th, nss edicola and Kimbo® reinterpreted this tradition within Cortile Napoletano, the activation hosted by Combo Milano, transforming it into an artistic workshop dedicated to painting. From 3:00 to 6:00 PM, the courtyard hosted La Controra, a workshop led by Francesco Pipitone that invited participants to experiment with a decidedly unusual material: coffee. The starting point was the connection between Caravaggio and Naples, specifically the use of light and shadow that characterises the works the painter produced during his stay in the city.

Through the use of instant coffee mixed with water, participants were able to explore different chromatic intensities, from the most delicate shades to dark, concentrated tones. Brushes, spatulas, and watercolour paper accompanied a creative exercise in which marks and stains became the starting point for rendering faces, landscapes, and abstract compositions. The workshop thus offered a different interpretation of coffee, which for one afternoon left the espresso cup behind to become a painterly medium. A way of exploring the relationship between art and Neapolitan culture, through an everyday gesture transformed into a collective experience.