THOMAS DAMBO THE WORLD’S MOST PROMINENT RECYCLE ARTIST SHARES HIS
NATIONWIDE GIANT TROLL ART EXHIBITION AND TREASURE HUNT
“GIANT TROLL FOLK FEST”
BRINGING JOY TO MILLIONS
WATCH THE VIDEO : HERE
Artist and climate activist Thomas Dambo who also carries the title of the world's most prominent "recycle artist" took on his most ambitious project to date during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Last year (2020) was slated to be the biggest of Dambo’s career. There 25 sculptures planned in 8 different countries including installations at the Olympics, Burning Man Festival, Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, every single one of which was canceled within a span of a few weeks. In March of 2020 Dambo and his team traveled home to Copenhagen from San Juan, Puerto Rico leaving behind a half-finished sculpture. The shutdown triggered an immense amount of panic in Dambo over the possibility of having to let go of his team, losing his warehouse, and the entire business drove him into a deep depression. After the initial shock wore off and the reality of COVID-19 grounding most of the world for what would be an unknown amount of time sunk in, Dambo did what he does best, and started developing ideas for sculptures to serve his home country of Denmark. If people couldn’t travel or go on vacation then he would do something to bring that sense of joy and excitement to them. The result was the nationwide exhibition was named "Den kæmpestore troldefolkefest!" which roughly translates into "The Giant Troll-Folk-Fest," a story about humans and nature coming together told through 10 sculptures built throughout his home country of Denmark. Having zero budget for the project Dambo reached out on his social media asking if anyone was willing to give a hand - and over the course of the ten sculptures around 1000 volunteers laid hand on the sculptures. “I just went from having so many projects, to having no projects at all,” Dambo told BlackBook Magazine. “Covid wiped my calendar clean. So the project was a way of putting my mind away from that loss, but also of directing that energy towards something positive. I think we had a thousand people come out and help scavenge wood, take pallets apart…and make sandwiches. It was really a community project, and we adhered to Covid protocol of course.”
The location of each sculpture was kept secret. Dambo created a webpage www.trollmap.com with all green crosses on the locations for clues, a Treasure Hunt for the sculptures, enabling seekers to find each of the giant trolls hidden throughout the country. Each piece can be reached by foot or bike rides. The trolls have been visited by hundreds of thousands of people and what started out being a project for Dambo to lift his spirits, turned into something positive and uplifting for the entire country, and those around the world who followed the project online.
Dambo is best known for his giant troll sculptures (5-15 meters) all made out of reclaimed materials. For Dambo each sculpture is an opportunity to educate visitors on a problem that exists in the world, explaining complex problems with an element of fun through folklore. Dambo spends almost as much crafting these stories as he does the sculptures, all of which explore our relationship with the planet. His work has taken him all over the world to build over 76 trolls, attracting millions of visitors, and garnering international media attention (BBC, National Geographic, VICE, Colossal, The Kelly Clarkson Show, Creative Boom). “I want to take trash and turn it into something that will open people’s eyes and minds,” Dambo told National Geographic. “We shouldn’t throw the world out—then we’ll have a world with no mountains, no woods.”
Not only have these exhibits been a source of joy and brief escape during the shutdown due to COVID-19 in his own country but all over the world, including here in the U.S. Last month the Chicago Tribune wrote a piece on a "Save the Trolls" petition (via Change.org) that was started by Chicago resident Delilah Durbin to save an exhibit of 6 sculptures at the Morton Arboretum that were built in 2018 and were scheduled to be removed on January 31 of this year. Durbin told the Tribune that “To end their life like this by just removing them doesn’t complete the story for me. I feel they have more life to live." Dambo's Giant Troll exhibit yielded the park's highest attendance in its 97-year history (1.26 Million) the year it opened in 2018. Dambo is flattered by the effort to save his exhibit and as a recycle artist does not want to see any of his work end up in the trash, especially since each sculpture was made from trash and recycled materials, but there was no agreement in place as to what happens to the trolls post exhibit, so the fate of these pieces it up to the park.
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