Two Cork artists are leading a year of intriguing free events at Tramore Valley Park
Looking for an excuse for some fresh air and exercise?
If Tramore Valley Park isn’t on your radar as a good spot for a stroll, the creatives behind a fascinating new venture are doing their level best to change that.
Launched today, the KinShip Project is an ambitious public artwork based in the 170-acre park, a former landfill site south of Cork City.
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The aim of this year-long project is to develop “a kin-like connection between Tramore Valley Park and its surrounding community, encouraging people to treat the park as an extension of their own family”.
Led by artists LennonTaylor (Marilyn Lennon and Seán Taylor), in partnership with Cork City Council and backed by the inaugural Creative Climate Action fund, members of the public are invited to participate in The Midden Chronicles’, a year-long deep mapping of the park focused on activities like growing, foraging, composting, rewilding, walking, beekeeping and planting.
Working with collaborators, the duo will record, broadcast, perform, write, visualise, create and share impressions with the park, its wider community of life, and the citizens of Cork city.
“The Park is an archaeology of our past, our friends’ pasts, and all of us that lived and grew in the city in those years,” they explain.
“We are part of that park, we are responsible, we own some of the history of that landscape. The KinShip Project represents a challenge of the imagination in this era of climate change, and for all of us.”
Here are three other elements of The KinShip Project you can get involved in:
● BECOMING KIN: THE KINSHIP CITIZEN-LED PROGRAMME
As part of ‘Becoming Kin’, The KinShip project is now welcoming expressions of interest from any Cork city-based person, group, organisation, or group of friends who have knowledge, know-how, or skills to share with the public. Participants may wish to contribute by delivering talks and workshops or by guiding walks and other park-based activities.
These activities will take place on the last Sunday of every month. For the first event, Cork Nature Network will run a free Winter Nature Walk in the park on February 27th (2pm-4pm, suitable for all ages).
● THE KINSHIP ARTIST PLACEMENT PROGRAMME
Professional artists or creatives can apply to participate in an Artist Placement on The KinShip Project.
These paid artist placements are particularly aimed at opening up new perspectives, ways of inhabiting the park, and generating wider public conversation on climate action, ecology, waste, urban land use, and kinship with the wider community of life.
● THE KINSHIP ECOLAB COMPETITION
The KinShip EcoLab Competition is an open call to design and build an experimental and innovative temporary structure of architectural importance in Tramore Valley Park. The competition challenges architects, artists, designers, eco-builders, and craftspeople to create a temporary architectural/sculptural structure for public meetings and workshops.
Proposals should focus on eco-friendly and cost-effective building techniques to set an example of green building practice in Ireland and beyond.
The competition will be launched in March 2022 and will be announced on The KinShip Project website and social media channels.
