This collection of three books held together by a paper sleeve was released in conjunction with a site-specific installation entitled Conversation Pieces, presented in the former home and working space of art critic and literature scholar Mario Praz (now the Museo Mario Praz) in Rome, Italy, in December 2006.
The first book, Maria Colao: A Bibliography records the contents of gallerist Maria Colao’s collection of art publications. The library, displayed in Colao’s gallery, Primo Piano, was open to the public and conceived both as a private collection and as a constantly updated reference library. This bibliography lists the inventory as it was when the library closed after Colao’s death in 2003. Including over 2,000 titles, it is not only a useful tool for navigating the collection, but also a portrait of a collector through her personal collection.
The second book, Conversation Pieces, regroups several pages from books drawn from Maria Colao’s library, reproduced in their original size, color and type of paper in order to demonstrate the wide variety of formats and subject matters present in the collection. The selected pages include reproductions of works by John Anselmo, Agnetti Vincent, John Baldessari, Alighiero Boetti, Marcel Broodthaers, Rodney Graham, Graham Gussin, Jeff Koons, Ermanno Migliorini, Tobias Rehberger, Thomas Ruff and Richard Tuttle, among others.
The third book, Conversation Pieces/Museo Mario Praz documents Nicolai’s artistic intervention within the Museo Mario Praz through large, color installation views. Building on the previous stages of his project, Nicolai framed the pages that he had selected from Colao’s books and inserted those incongruous new pieces into the house-museum’s lavish, classic decor. By combining the personal histories of Mario Praz and Maria Colao, Olaf Nicolai creates a dialogue between two important figures of the Italian art world.
This multilayered project explores the relationship between identity and the cultural objects that we surround ourselves with.
