The Literature Boat Epos

Literature Boat Epos is a travelling cultural site with a long history of serving coastal communities in Western Norway. Epos operated as a floating library from the 1960s until 2020, and now functions as a mobile cultural platform run by a dedicated foundation, hosting readings, exhibitions, school visits, and workshops in collaboration with libraries, festivals, and local partners.

Convened by Adania Shibli in dialogue with Maria Pile Svåsand and local communites, the art programme ‘Water as a Linker and Separator’ activates Epos through residencies, readings, talks, screenings, and performances. It engages audiences in Bergen, as well as those in the regions of Sunnhordland and Hardanger, fostering collaborations with artists and institutions as it moves between Bergen, Valevåg, Lofthus/Grimo, Odda, and other sites along the Hardangerfjord.

In advance of the journey, students from Bergen School of Architecture (BAS) have redesigned parts of the boat’s interior to support its expanded use. On board, the film Land Listening by Philip Rizk is installed in one of the lower cabins. Newly commissioned works include Along the currents — an ocean of voices, a choral of beings (2025) a sound installation by Elin Már Øyen Vister, weaving together voices connected by water, and All we are saying… (2025) by Elsebet Rahlff that creates a new space on the aft deck. The boat also hosts a residency programme with invited poets and writers Layli Long Soldier and Maaza Mengiste, and anthropologist Shahram Khosravi.

Together, these contributions and collaborations explore connections between land and sea. They foreground encounters and reflection, considering water as both a space supporting togetherness and a boundary that shapes different forms of knoweldge and acknolwedgment.