***
SmSh: For those who didn’t catch your last show, can you tell us a bit about your project Secreto? Can you recall when you were first inspired by secrets?
Maria: I started this project about two years ago, but actually when my father passed away almost 10 years ago, I realized he had a secret which not even my mom knew. And I just thought why? Why did my father keep this secret—which was really no big secret—for so long. And I’m completely sure keeping it negatively impacted his life. This was on my mind for almost 10 years, I wanted to work with secrets but I wasn’t sure how to develop a project like that. I decided to keep it super easy, I’ll invite people to write and read secrets, and in this way I’ll give the possibility for people to express themselves freely. That's how it all started."What people think of as a secret in Korea is totally different from what people understand by secrets in New York. People hide different things, it all depends on that society."
SmSh: Secreto is currently on world tour, where have you been and where are you going after Shanghai?
Maria: So it started in Barcelona, and from there I realized it is a universal topic—I really wanted to do a tour in Europe. So I arranged everything for that and now this year I got support from DIRAC to Asia and Europe again and then Latin America. I have taken it to many countries, so far: Chile, America, Italy, Germany, England, Spain, Korea, Vietnam; now China then Russia, Albania, Austria, then Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela. And I think this is the last tour—maybe! I want to stop now and figure out a way to make this into a book so I think I will spend the whole 2019 doing that.
SmSh: So you get to know a lot of secrets, do you still get surprised by some? Can you think of one in particular that stood out?
Maria: Many of them, I mean at the beginning I read all of the secrets, but I decided I didn’t want to do that anymore because I got completely overwhelmed. I mean most people hide dark things. So there is one in particular which was about abuse; a guy confessed he was abusing a child, and I wanted to find out who he was and file a police report—but there is no name attached to the notes. And this is not my role, I want people to express themselves but I can’t bring justice...now I don’t really read them, and anyways now I’m in Korea, in China—I would need translation.SmSh: Do you have any secrets of you’re own in there?
Maria: Yeah one, but I didn’t dare to write my secret so I drew my secret. Because in the beginning I thought, you know, all my friends are going to read this and know my handwriting, so know my secret—so I said ok, I am just going to draw it. It’s still in this show.
SmSh: What can people expect at the opening Friday and why should people come and share their secrets?
Maria: When you get there, in order to read one of the secrets you are seeing, you have to write one; so I’ll give you an envelope. What’s there is envelopes, but all these envelopes are people at the same time. Why share?... I think the act of writing down your secret allows you to take away that history of your life and see it, and make yourself aware of why you’re hiding it. So it’s like a release for people, and it’s entertaining at the same time—there are funny secrets, horrible secrets, super deep things. It’s 1,500 different small memories. *
