The vaulted hall at LARGO 10 and its stage

Café Joyeux — the solidarity coffee served at LARGO 10

What’s on

An exhibition under the vaults of LARGO 10

EXHIBITIONS and then some

With the frame of a small giant, its pointed vaults and its industrial past, this carefully restored olive mill is a place of artistic creation that can turn, when the occasion calls for it, into an exhibition space open to other art forms — music, dance, puppetry, illusionism, theatre — in a setting quite unlike the usual venues. With its air of a public square under the stars, LARGO 10 is as much a place for the imagination as a laboratory for bold ideas.
Programme on WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook.

Cinema

A CINEMA that isn’t a cinema

We wanted a place where you can be astonished again by images on a big screen, the old way, in a spirit that is popular and poetic — seating is free, everyone picks up a chair and puts it where they like. We dream of seeing the great Italian and French classics again, in black and white, or auteur documentaries, as a one-off experience to open your artistic chakras. At LARGO 10 we promise you a small taste of Cinema Paradiso. What do you say? Follow what we’re planning on social media.

The studios

The stone and metal sculpture studio at LARGO 10

STONE, IRON and LIGHT, worked before your eyes

LARGO 10, an old mill with the bearing of a cathedral, is the right setting for thinking, for inspiration, and for the quiet that making things requires. Since the restoration it has been home to two resident artists: a sculptor working in stone and metal, and a maker of lamps built from antique globes and Lecce stone. Others should be joining them. And because every act of creation is an act of hospitality, come and meet them and see their work — by appointment.

Your project

OVER A COFFEE, anything can be imagined

LARGO 10 is an indoor square, a theatre for real feeling. Which makes it right for anyone looking for a different kind of space to hold an event. Come and see the studio under the starred vaults, and tell us about your project over an espresso.

Frantoio The old olive mill di Poggiardo starts a new life

Click a photo to see LARGO 10 full size

About us

The façade of LARGO 10 and its black gate marked LARGODIECI, in Poggiardo

The association

A PRIVATE MILL and an ASSOCIATION to run it

We are an association of French and Italian artists and musicians, housed in the heart of a recently restored olive mill. It is open to anyone with an interest in artistic life in all its forms, in putting on cultural gatherings, in music or film projects. If, like us, you believe that art changes not the world but the way we live in it, and that every encounter can transform a place and the people who walk into it, then join us. We’ll work on fine projects together and bring your ideas to life.

The team

FOUR PATHS that fit together

Picture a sculptor and guitarist trained as an international robotics engineer; a lamp-maker who studied at the École Boulle, a pianist, until recently head of art and craft schools in Paris; a media and events man, jazz drummer and playwright, seven years spent going round the world; and finally a Salento guardian angel, many-skilled and many-tongued. Picture the creative cocktail that came out of that meeting and you have the LARGO 10 team. Eclectic, wouldn’t you say?

Principality

A PRINCIPALITY to widen the borders

We believe art can change the way we live in the world, and that every encounter can transform a place and the people who walk into it. So, to open our project outward, we imagined the association as a creative and fanciful micronation devoted to art, culture and exchange across borders.
Named the ARTISTIC PRINCIPALITY OF MESSAPIA, it administers LARGO 10 and will shortly be setting up twinnings and embassies in Italy and abroad.