Omar Fakhoury - The Forest: Past

Your previous paintings consisted of residues of human-made objects and architecture while these have no discernable trace of human presence

I think that the forest I reencountered is today rarely frequented. Few people venture into it, and most of the trails I once knew have largely disappeared. Comparing photographs, I had taken when I was 17 with ones taken today, wilderness has clearly reclaimed the space. The human presence I could see was mostly found ‘By the Stream,’ which depicts an encounter with the skull of a goat standing in front of an abandoned Renault 12.


The larger paintings are of very specific sites. How did you decide which ones to paint?

These paintings are portraits. A portrait is more immediate and intimate, with one of its functions being to take possession of someone or something.
The majority of the sites in these larger paintings evoke a sort of fragmented map of places carrying emotional connections. Some others are simply recent discoveries.
‘Hiding from the Rain’ is a place we used to shelter. ‘Sunday Afternoon’ captures the bucolic stage of our many picnics. In the midst of old vineyards that are today corpses, the light grey branches of a fig tree contrast sharply with the landscape and are hard to miss. I could also not help but paint my father’s favorite mulberry tree facing our family home. Etc.


Can you share the process behind selecting the titles for the various flower and plant specimens?

From ‘Cow Tits’, ‘Lying Sage’, ‘Jackal’s Cucumber’ to ‘Brain in its Chest’, each of these colloquial names were born over time and have been around for generations. They are playful, rich, and complex, telling the intricate story of a collective imagination that gave a name to a form.
I remembered some of the names. For others, I had to ask around and reach out to friends or shepherds. I eventually joined WhatsApp groups with forest enthusiasts across the country. Some plants bear multiple names, depending on the area or region they come from, so I chose a single name to represent each specimen.


How did you then make this choice?

I chose what I felt had the most poetic or ludic nature, deviating from its original scientific name.
I even allowed myself to rename Wild Oat to ‘How Many Sins?’ in reference to a game we used to play as kids by tossing its seedlings towards a friend. Counting the ones that clung to their clothes would tell us how many sins they did not confess.


Will you continue to explore the forest after the exhibition?

When I started this project in July 2023, I promised myself I would cover a one-year cycle of the forest, so yes, these visits and this work are ongoing.

A conversation between Omar Fakhoury and Joumana Asseily



Omar Fakhoury

Omar Fakhoury (b. 1979 in Beit Chabab Lebanon).

The artist primarily works with painting, although he also explores video installations, and site-specific urban sculptures and interventions. His work concentrates on Lebanon’s complex political and urban fabric. His interest in public space and the elements marking territories is manifested in his latest painting nd sculptural works.

He received a Bachelor in Painting and Drawing from the Lebanese University, followed by a Masters of Fine Arts from Paris I- Sorbonne in 2004.

He is currently a lecturer at the Lebanese University (IBA II).