Pyydän lupaa // Asking for permission, Poetry Video by Kirsi-Marja Moberg

Asking for permission is a poetry video as well as an interactive performance. The project consists of Kirsi-Marja Moberg´s poetry performance, during which five other performers improvise their own interpretations of the text and the situation. In the performance Moberg explores interactivity between performers, objects, text, and space as well as her own bodily experience.

The poem depicts the things in our lives that we ask permission for. From whom or from what we require the permission, and by what means we seek justification for the things we want or who we want to be. The core of the performance constructs from actions of the co-performers: the objects they use and roles they take creates tension and evokes new interpretations to the message of the poem.

The project includes an essay in which Moberg analyzes the work process as well as experiences of the co-performers through interviews. The video was realized during Aalto University’s Interactive Poetry -course and filmed in the university’s studio. Kirsi-Marja Moberg is a visual artist, poet and M.A student at Aalto University. Her first poetry book is going to be published next year.

*click on the subtitles/closed captions tab to watch the video with English subtitles.

The poem:

I ask for permission
I ask for permission

while dreaming
while awake

and even
then
when I´m not asking
for permission

Am I allowed
to be tired
Am I allowed to be tired of
your torches
that you carry
perhaps
not knowingly

At the beginning highways
You know the trail
that leads you
       leads you

I ask for

that I would
receive
without
asking for

That I´d get your bright torches
For a moment
I´d darken them
so your routes
would be lightless

So that for a little while
I´d get to
brush my hair back

But I ask
for permission
from hot stove
from broken blender
from childhood´s slide

I ask for permission
from forgotten words
from yesterday’s morning
      spring sun
      shy wishes
      misty evening stars

I ask for permission
to be
at the beginning
to be
in between
to be at the end

Finally

just

be

free

or
at peace
in my own
prison

And from you
I ask for permission

You

who are
unknown

You

who are
just
another

road

This poetry video and text have been created as a part of the Interactive Poetry -course at Aalto University during spring 2021. Written and produced by Kirsi-Marja Moberg.

First published May 21, 2021, by the Digital Literature Project.