Bilbao (EFE).- The Oma Forest faces its last phase of painting, a total of 19 artistic groups that will take place from March to the end of the summer of 2023, and in October it will open its doors to the public.
The project has been designed by the Bizkaia Provincial Council hand in hand with a multidisciplinary team led by UPV-EHU professor Fernando Bazeta and José Ibarrola, son of the artist Agustín Ibarrola, creator of the Oma Forest.
The second phase of the project was presented at a press conference in which the Basque Language, Culture and Sport representative, Lorea Bilbao, along with Fernando Bazeta and José Ibarriola, participated.
Family satisfaction
“For the family it is a great satisfaction that the forest is recovering. It was very bad and after this year it was even worse, but seeing that it will have a long life is a great satisfaction”, stated José Ibarrola.
In the first phase, which began last summer, they developed 14 artistic sets with a total of 454 painted trees.
This second phase, which begins now, will include the painting of 400 trees and 19 artistic groups.
In the painting process, we have sought to respect, in addition to the same type of paint that the artist Agustín Ibarrola used, the process in which he captured the ensembles.
Recovery of three lost sets
Likewise, it will include the recovery of three complexes, the Mosque of Córdoba, Homage to the Oak and Nuclear Threat, which were lost in 1989 due to the felling carried out by the owners of the land at that time.
“We wanted to reflect the stamp of Agustín and not an already distorted, prostituted image of that iconography of him. Time goes by and many times people are left with the substitute, but I have a special interest in recovering his stamp, that is why I will continue to torture Fernando ”, Ibarrola assured.
The Oma Forest will open to the public in October showing the complete work with its 33 sets and more than 800 painted trees, and will have an artistic route of more than one kilometer. EFE