Oma Painted Forest

Why go

The reward comes from finding the position where separate marks suddenly form a shared image. This makes the visit an active encounter with art and landscape: walking and looking belong together. Allow for the approach as well as time among the trees, rather than treating Oma as a roadside sculpture.

What to look for

• Painted radiata pine trunks combine into geometric compositions.
• Marked perspectives help reveal images spread across several trees.

The full story

Agustín Ibarrola used trees as parts of a larger picture. Lines and geometric shapes cross the gaps between trunks when seen from particular positions, then separate again as the viewer moves. The work belongs to land art, in which the setting participates in the artwork instead of merely providing its backdrop. Here, the visitor’s position is part of how the image takes shape. The forest’s living material also gives it a history unlike that of a conventional gallery painting. The original grove could not remain unchanged indefinitely: its trees reached the end of their lives. The work was transferred to Basobarri, which became the new Bosque de Oma. The present visitor forest must therefore be distinguished from the former grove shown in older photographs. Accounts of damage and vandalism concern that earlier setting. They are part of Oma’s history, rather than a description of the woodland artwork visitors encounter at Basobarri.

Useful to know

• Start at Santimamiñe; the forest approach is 2.8 km on foot, about 50 minutes.
• Leave time for the return walk as well as moving between the forest’s viewing positions.

Your next visit

Estimated · Declared scenario and planning estimates; no live opening, weather, queue or booking service.