There’s a neon sign glowing on Via Garibaldi in Trastevere that reads Bar Far, and the internet has been obesssing over it. It’s moody, sculptural, and very Instagrammable, which is why people assumed it was the city’s newest cocktail bar. It is, kind of. And that’s entirely the point.
Bar Far is an immersive art installation by British sculptor Clementine Keith-Roach and painter Christopher Page, presented in Villa Lontana’s new Trastevere space—renovated in collaboration with Studio Strato and curated by Vittoria Bonifati, artistic director of Villa Lontana—through March 14. The duo has transformed the entire interior into a hallucinatory gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art); part Roman ruin, part baroque fever dream, part something with no name yet.
Once inside, Keith-Roach’s plaster cast reliefs push body parts through the walls, thighs prop up tabletops, open palms cradle benches, and hands extend as candleholders. You’ll immediately spot their collaborative ‘A Storm is Blowing from Heaven’ piece, where hands clasp and graze each other’s wrists in a continuous, almost devotional loop. And just after the bar, Page’s paintings take over, in what seems like gateways into fiery portals but it’s up to you to interpret what’s going on. The entire installation is intertwined and while there are two artists, it’s one total artwork. Everything looks like something else and nothing is what it seems.
Which brings us to the bar. Behind what appears to be a proper bar setup, Bar Far-branded martini glasses line the wall. Guests can, in fact, order something simple like a Campari soda, vermouth, tequila soda, or non-alcoholic bitter and sip it while wandering the space—and leave a five euro donation toward exhibition maintenance. It’s less a cocktail program than a gesture. The drink is almost beside the point, except that it isn’t because sipping something while your eyes try to make sense of a room built entirely on illusion is a very specific, very good kind of disorientation.
The space is inspired by art bars of the past such as Cabaret Voltaire, London’s Colony Room, Rome’s own Caffè Greco (which shockingly closed in 2025)—all places that emerged during political upheaval and gave people somewhere to think out loud together. Bar Far is definitely a place to think out loud and to look more carefully at what’s in front of you. It’s also cool to step out of the crowded streets and sip on a refreshing drink and chat with whoever’s behind the bar.
Bar Far is open Wednesday through Saturday, 3 to 9pm. Go before March 14, because after this date the space will completely disappear…like it was all a dream to begin with.