this/OUR is a participatory, place-based project that works with communities to engage with the places where they live and to reflect on their relationship to them, through creative, ecological, and community-focused encounters. The project is led by artists Basil Al-Rawi, Chris Finnegan, Katie Nolan, and Philip Ryan.
this/OUR was originally developed in Glenbower Wood, Killeagh, East Cork, in partnership with Greywood Arts, Glenbower Wood & Lake CLG, and the Sites of Fracture research project based at the University of Birmingham.
this/OUR uses prompts, provocations, invitations, and deep mapping methodologies to bring together community voices, artistic interpretations, historical narratives, and ecological perspectives, creating a layered and situated encounter with place.
The methodology draws inspiration from Jorge Luis Borges’ short essay On Exactitude in Science, exploring the tension between attempts to precisely define this place and the transient, relational nature of our connection to it.
Project mentors Dr Cathy Fitzgerald, Jonski Millar and Dr Kevin O’Sullivan brought expertise in ecological art, ecoliteracy, citizen archaeology, participatory mapping, environmental history and global justice, helping this/OUR situate Glenbower Wood within wider questions of ecology, heritage, community memory and place-based knowledge.
this/OUR in Glenbower Wood was supported by an Arts Council Arts Participation Project Award (2025) and a Cork County Council Arts Grant, with the Glenbower Wood iteration taking place from January to November 2025.
this/OUR is open to new opportunities to bring this form of practice to other sites and habitats, enabling people to engage with the nested ecologies in which they live and utilising this/OUR box as an activator, container and conduit for putting these habitats in dialogue with each other.
For more information on the project, please visit http://thisour.ie
