Thomas Dambo Studio

Thomas Dambo builds giants out of garbage. For more than a decade the Danish artist has turned old pallets, scrap wood and other things we throw away into huge wooden trolls. They hide in forests, on hillsides and under bridges. Today around 200 of them live in around 20 countries, and millions of people go looking for them every year. Each troll has its own name and its own poem, and there’s a reason it sits exactly where it sits.

In Thomas’s modern folklore the trolls speak for nature. They watch what humans do to the planet, and they’re a little annoyed about it. They’re also his argument for recycling. Almost everything they’re made of was on its way to the dump, and Thomas wants people to see that our trash isn’t worthless. It’s material waiting for a second life. Every troll is built with local volunteers, and every troll is a treasure hunt. You have to go out and find it.

Thomas Dambo Studio project manager Troels Ehrhorn Nielsen and Jacob Keinicke Nissen, head of concepts and publishing, show how a troll is born, from the first site visit with a client to the story of a six-meter giant in the woods. They also talk about what happens when a character escapes into the real world and whole towns go looking for it.