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Artègo

Facciata Negozio Artègo a Lecce
The journey begins
Artego offers those who enter, through material and shapes, the stories of artist-artisans, authors of tangible stories linked to the territory, which draw from there, imagine from there to reach far away.
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All that remains is to enter...
The visitor is invited to a sensory journey: to get lost in imaginative paths, among scents and shapes to rediscover among the objects, the faces, the lights, the materials, that light, the sun-drenched walls, the spiral of porous stone, the colors of the flowers in spring, the mist of the autumn waves.
Our History

Artego opened in 2007, there where it is now next to Corso Street, but protected from its approved flow. In 2010 it took the form it has now thanks to the reunion of two brothers, Oronzo and Gianfranco.

Oronzo opened the store from the very beginning, left his employee job because he wanted his own thing in Lecce. Gianfranco has returned from Milan, after working as an industrial designer between projects and renderings. They meet again in their homeland and decide to combine visions to create Artego, creative handicrafts, as it is now.

They renovate the whole place with their own hands in 55 days, Gianfranco designs it, thinks of it as a simple, clean place where the artisans-authors present are recognizable and have their own sensitive space.
Together and with reused materials they shape this place, Oronzo feels he is getting closer to the idea he had in mind. They also place there a family totem: a prickly pear tree from their countryside.

The store

Oronzo welcomes people, listens to their stimuli, suggestions, and often tells them to Gianfranco, who since returning to the south has rediscovered that fruitful bond that unites hands and project, head and heart, that creativity that generates sensible imperfection in his work. Gianfranco thus became one of Artego’s author-craftsmen.

Artego’s spaces are curated; there is choice at the heart of this store. There are no showcases, but the objects featured are carefully chosen and placed, passing through direct acquaintance with the creators, all thinking artisans from the area, who strongly hold together the wisdom of hands and the narrative project; each carrying their own material poetics, attached to the territory.

To enter Artego is to educate the eye to a different idea of the object, to clean oneself from the plastic and background noise of tourist gadget showcases and to enter authentic creative worlds.

OUR DIARY