Villa Lontana Opens New Trastevere Space with Bar Far Installation

Villa Lontana, a curatorial project founded in 2018 by Vittoria Bonifati in collaboration with Jo Melvin, has relocated to Via Garibaldi 68–69 in Rome's Trastevere district. The new venue opened in December 2025 with 'Bar Far', an installation by Clementine Keith-Roach and Christopher Page that functions as a working bar, on view until March 14. The project originally operated at Via Cassia 53, where it staged exhibitions, publications, screenings, artist editions, and sound projects via Villa Lontana Records, directed with Michele Ferrari. The new space was renovated with Rome-based architecture firm Strato. The installation draws on historical art bars such as Cabaret Voltaire, Colony Room, and Caffé Greco, the latter a favorite of Giorgio de Chirico. Keith-Roach and Page employ trompe l'oeil painting to create illusions that invite close inspection and reveal their artifice: Keith-Roach's reliefs appear as stone extensions but are painted plaster, while Page's perspectival wall painting seems infinite from certain angles but distorts as viewers move. Bonifati describes 'Bar Far' as the latest collaboration between the artists, addressing the destruction of old worlds and the emergence of new ones from ruins, offering a ludic, metaphysical space for contemplation.