THE SECRET WORD IS NO is a collaboration between artists Louisa Palmi and Per Martinsen — two composers and performers who met at the very bottom of an empty swimming pool in Tromsø in 2022, commissioned by the Insomnia Festival.

The project explores the dynamics and structures that traditionally create expectations in artistic collaborations across gender, identity, age and experience — building a shared space where none of those externally imposed hierarchies hold ground.

The name is taken from the rules of a secret lodge: new members are told there exists a secret word they will only learn after decades of total obedience. That word is NO.