Tramore Valley Park will be brought to life with the new 'KinShip Project'

A series of free family activities, ten artist residencies and the construction of an 'eco-lab' aim to bring people closer to the former landfill site's new life as a national park

Artists Lennon Taylor (Marilyn Lennon and Seán Taylor) of The KinShip Project, at Tramore Valley Park, Cork. Picture: Darragh Kane

A new public art project seeks to draw connections between the people of Cork's southside and the Tramore Valley Park, fostering a sense of community and care for a natural landscape reclaimed from landfill.

The KinShip Project, led by artists LennonTaylor (Marilyn Lennon and Seán Taylor), is designed to support "creative, cultural and artistic projects that build awareness around climate change", illustrating how we can make changes in our behaviour amid environmental worries. 

Tramore Valley Park, spanning 170 acres off the city’s South Link Road, was used as a landfill site between the 1960s and 2009, with over 3 million tonnes of waste from Cork homes and businesses deposited on site. 

Lennon Taylor set out to establish a relationship between the city's people and the habitat of Tramore Valley Park. Picture: Darragh Kane

Ten years after the landfill’s closure, the site was repurposed into a public park for the people of Cork city, becoming a habitat for a whole host of living things with whom this project aims to establish ‘a kinship’.

"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," say the artists. 

"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."

The spine of this campaign will be 'The Midden Chronicles', a year-long "deep-mapping" of the park, reframing daily activities like growing, foraging, composting, rewilding, walking, beekeeping, and planting as forms of physical storytelling.

They'll be working with local artists and documentarians, as well as community groups, to document a year in the life of the burgeoning facility.

Community groups and partners include Cork Healthy Cities, Cork Nature Network, Cork UNESCO Learning Cities, Green Spaces for Health, MTU Clean Technology Centre, and UCC Environmental Research Institute.

The project is a partnership with Cork City Council, receiving help from the Creative Climate Action fund, an initiative from the Creative Ireland Programme in collaboration with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and the Department of Environment, Climate and Communication.

• For more information on how you can get involved in The KinShip Project, or to register for a free event, visit www.corkcity.ie/en/kinship/

How you and your friends and family can take part:

You and your community groups can get involved in the project. Picture: Darragh Kane

Muck in with community groups: the project is welcoming expressions of interest from any Cork city-based person, group, organisation, or group of friends who has 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.

Make art: Professional artists or creatives can apply to participate in an Artist Placement on The KinShip Project. 

These paid 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: 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.