It was very hard for me to use color in my gallery. It used to be pure white. I built of walls and all that [sic]. And the first blue I picked up was the wrong blue.
[Which reminds me of a bathroom in a house in West Virginia.] And it was just like being raped in my own gallery. Someone was aggressing my gallery, where it was my own artistic direction. It was thoroughly crazy. After, it came up to magic because Gabriela came, and we ordered this hay, and she did the installation where the videos are all about tarot cards and magic. And actually the first work I sought was the drawing of the card of Death in tarot, which is a very good card. It was very difficult to pull together, and I thought I was going to fail, because people had such high expectations about this show. I was saying once they arrive they would say, 'Oh, that was not looking so good,' and I couldn't do something which was so-so.
The day of the show it was raining, and I was not serving alcohol because I wanted to keep the works safe, and most of the people in Chelsea would just come to have a drink and they don't give so much of a shit about the work. I thought they wouldn't come to see it, and it was packed. And people were watching the videos, and parts of the music are very intense... and I looked at the installation and people reacting, and I started to cry. Just talking about it I have the goosebumps. In this business, you have to have emotion like this, some moments where you really have something intense. And those Icelandic girls are so intense. The whole show came out together at once.
What were you trying to express with this exploration of symbolism?
I'm not trying to express anything. I'm trying to show the links. Symbolism is not dead, and it's very present in art today. I mean there are hundreds of other artists I could have included. I could have evolved the show in so many ways. Do it with even more furniture... but I'm just myself. I'm one person, I don't have a sugar daddy. [laughs] Already to put this together was super-expensive and there were limits to my budget in a limited time.
Any surprises bringing the show together?
Natasha Ivanova is one of our Russian artists, and she's pregnant. The painting she sent me was too nice, in the context, with a unicorn. I said, you can do very dark things and suddenly, this! She said, 'Well, I'm just so happy!' and I said, 'Oh, shit'.
What do you bring to your role as curator?
Well, it's been 20 years in this business and I've always loved this movement. I also advise and sell artwork on secondary markets. So I had all the relationships to be able to find the Redon, because everything is for sale in the show. With the dealers, I did work which was not in my field. They all loved the idea, one said you must have
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and he was right, but I never expected that. So people really played on it and we came across things which were in storage forever. Since I know the movement well, for me it was easy to communicate that. It's really my vision of symbolism... what I like. I went to see people and artists and saw what could work in here. And the contemporary work is shown in a different light next to the more classic pieces.
How do you maintain your energy?
Tea and red wine. I don't know, I have so much energy it's frightening. I should do more yoga. I fell into a tub of coke when I was a little girl. [laughs] No, I'm naturally speedy. I think I had to switch out of my country because Paris is a sleeping beauty. It's the most beautiful city in the world but there's no more energy. And we're not supported by collectors. Here, even though it's hard now and we're struggling, everybody is coming to New York at one point in the year. I see more curators and collectors than I would see anywhere else. In Berlin, people go once a year and there is no local market. For me, New York is best. It's really nice to have that energy. I try to keep my eyes open. I think when you keep your eyes open, that's how it really happens.
The Cueto Project is located at:
551, West 21st Street
New York, NY 10011