The Oma Forest Project

Learn about the origins of the project, how it was developed and the works that it contains

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History

The beginnings of the project

In 1982 artist Agustín Ibarrola began to paint on the pine trees in the forest near his farmhouse home, seeking to use the landscape itself as a canvas to give continuity to his artistic expresión. He decided to break the rules of perspective and turn white lines painted on a three-dimensional background into two-dimensional figures.

He began to explore the potential of the layout of the trees in the wood, playing with different depths of plane and creating multi-part art works comprising human figures, curved and straight lines and circles in bright colours.

As his ideas and concepts developed they became more complex, moving in various directions simultaneously as the area of woodland painted grew larger. Assisted by two students from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of the Basque Country, he produced a number of works that remained open to the public until 2018, when this stretch of woodland reached the end of its natural life.

In view of how important it had become, the Government of Biscay drew up a plan to ensure that the artwork of the Oma Forest would endure. Ibarrola also made it clear that he wanted his work to survive, and gave his support to the plan from the outset.

So to preserve the Oma Forest, Ibarrola's work was moved to a different location. In the process, numerous paintings (which had been lost as trees fell naturally, were cut down or even attacked) were restored.

Visitors can now enjoy an expanded version of the Oma Forest which is truer to the artist's original idea.

Art and Nature

The Oma Forest belongs to the movement known as Art and Nature, which arose in the late 1960s and sought to place works of art in nature, using the landscape as a backdrop, support and raw material. In the case of the Oma Forest the support chosen is the bark of Monterey pine trees, a species imported from America at the turn of the 19th century.

The ravages of time in the Forest

The pines on which the Oma Forest artworks were originally painted were planted in the late 1960s. By the turn of the 21st century they were coming to the end of their natural lives. An outbreak of a fungal disease named brown band. Several of the trees fell, and in 2018 the forest had to be closed for safety reasons. To ensure that the Oma Forest would survive the Government of Biscay find a new location for Agustín Ibarrola's work.

The two-phase migration of the Oma Forest

The first step in the migration process was to find another area of woodland similar to the site where Ibarrola had originally produced his artwork. The Government worked with Forestry Department personnel to locate a suitable spot. A multi-disciplinary team then analysed the specific location of each multi-part painting in the ensemble.

Phase one

Phase one, carried out in 2022, entailed planning the new layout of the Forest. The first step was to locate the most suitable spots in the woodland for each multi-part painting. Then the access paths had to be designed and arrangements made for the sustainable upkeep of the trees and hedges. After that, just under half of the multi-part paintings that make up the overall ensemble were painted, including some of the most popular pieces, such as Naiel's Rainbow and The Eyes.

Phase two

Phase two, conducted in 2023, involved the completion of the 34 multi-part works on over 800 trees.

Creative project

A walk through the Forest

As you walk through the forest you discover figures and motifs painted on the trees

  • A walk through the Forest

    As you walk through the forest you discover figures and motifs painted on the trees. Some are stand-alone figures on a single tree but others are more complex compositions that can only be seen by stopping and observing a number of trees together.

  • Perception

    The figures can shift and change depending on the point of view from which you look at them. Visitors are thus placed at the core of the artworks, which they must interpret for themselves.

Take a tour of the multi-part artworks

The Oma Forest app

Download the new Oma Forest app and make your visit to the Forest an unforgettable experience.