"Libraries are not made, they grow" - 2008 Premio New York Exhibition -is a site specific piece in the Italian Academy Library which comments on both contemporary culture and art.
"“You should always read a book twice. At least that's what I've read once in D.H.Lawrence's preface for his Apocalypse. So I started reading that book and I never finished it, too boring. In Damien Hirst's, On the Way to Work I found out that he discovered art through artbooks and not through exhibitions. Today you can discover this exhibition through all these books, and you don't have to read them even once! Of course, you must know that this is a beautiful library. Until a few years ago, it was not full. Like your stomach, you have to fill it. If you have a pocket, you need money. If you have a library, you need books. The Italian government sent boxes full of books. Good books and bad books: if somebody sends you a book, he's a good friend.
So, when people from Columbia now look through the window of our library, they're really gratified because now they find we have books, so we have intelligence! Umberto Eco once was asked: You've got a lot of books in your library: have you read all of them? He answered: If I had already read them, why should I keep them here? This show is the fastest way to read them: they're just images of themselves, like in Plato's cavern, they've got only two dimensions, so you can just take a look at their spines, that's all they've got, with their title, the ultimate summary; you can read them as many times as you want, it's easy and fast, and then you'll have time to go shopping and watch television. You'll really enjoy it, trust me.”
Interview with Andrea Mastrovito, from the official Italian Academy website.