Oma forest, Forest art installation in Kortezubi, Spain.
Oma is a forest plot in Kortezubi in the Spanish Basque Country where hundreds of painted pine trunks combine to form figurative and geometric motifs. The compositions reveal themselves fully only when visitors reach particular points on the ground and connect the scattered elements with their gaze.
Between 1982 and 1985 Basque artist Agustín Ibarrola transformed this woodland, inspired by prehistoric paintings in the nearby cave of Santimamiñe. The original works on roughly 500 trees were later relocated to a neighboring section because of fungal infection and supplemented with additional trunks.
The name comes from the locality of Oma near Kortezubi and the artist blends traditional Basque color choices with modern patterns on living trunks. Today visitors walk through an open gallery without admission gates, where nature slowly reclaims the paint and the appearance shifts with the seasons.
The paths are unpaved and may turn slippery after rain, so sturdy footwear helps when crossing the terrain. Signboards at the entrance mark the recommended viewpoints from which individual image motifs become most visible.
Many visitors overlook the fact that the paint layers fade over the years and mosses and lichens gradually reclaim the bark. This slow change makes every visit a different experience because the patterns grow less distinct over time and the balance between art and nature shifts.
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