On the west bank of the Tiber River in Rome, the independent art project Villa Lontana introduces a secondary exhibition space designed by local architecture practice Studio Strato. Inaugurating the site and continuing the project’s ethos of marrying ancient and contemporary creative practices is an eldritch installation that doubles as a working bar, by British artists Clementine Keith-Roach and Christopher Page.
Bar Far – which nods to Villa Lontana’s name, meaning ‘Faraway Villa’ in Italian – resembles a whimsical cloister of sorts, inspired by bygone art bars that provided refuge for creativity and connection during times of political upheaval, such as Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich (the birthplace of the Dada movement) and Caffè Greco in Rome (a favourite of Italian metaphysical artist Giorgio de Chirico).
Keith-Roach, a sculptor of ‘new ruins’, and Page, a painter of light, shadow and reflection, sought the feel of a hallucinatory Gesamtkunstwerk, layered with visual cues referencing the lavishness of the Baroque. It is the result of an ongoing collaboration on a series of artworks and installations that ponder the possibility of new life emerging from the ruins of a previous one. Both artists use trompe l’œil trickery to deceive and delight, creating a dreamlike atmosphere in which guests become part of the installation itself.
Infrastructural caryatids and plaster-cast body parts emerge from chalky walls and combine with utilitarian, industrial materials such as brick, pipe and timber: legs hold wall-mounted tables, arms extend benches, hands cradle candles. Meanwhile, a sequence of tall, softly rounded arches is cut into pale walls, each niche glowing from within in gradations of ember, rust and molten red – as if the architecture has been hollowed out to reveal a living core.
‘Bar Far offers a playful space to talk and drink amidst paradoxes and contradictions, a metaphysical space in which, who knows, we might find answers at the bottom of a glass,’ says curator Vittoria Bonifati.
Bar Far is on view until 14 March 2026. A programme of live performance will take place throughout the exhibition; further details and updates can be found on Villa Lontana’s website. It is located at Via Garibaldi 68-69, 00153 Rome, Italy