The Hidden Giants
Secret locations in Rødovre, Hvidovre, Vallensbæk, Ishøj, Albertslund and Høje Taastrup; trollmap.com
Autumn is upon us, and so too is the usual harem of insufferable Instagram days out, ranging from posing in a field of pumpkins to braying about pumpkin spice to… actually, never mind – they’re all pumpkin-related. When did we become so uncreative? Anyway, thank god there’s more to life than decorative gourds.
Fee-fi-fo-fum!
Right on your doorstep is an alternative autumn activity, sans squash, which still smacks of fairy-tale adventure. ‘The Six Forgotten Giants’ is a sculpture treasure-hunt hidden in nature-spots in six of Copenhagen’s western municipalities.
The timber giants, each up to five metres tall, are built from scrap wood with the help of local volunteers and form the first ‘chapter’ of an ongoing art-narrative entitled ‘The Great Story Of The Little People and The Giant Trolls’.
Off the beaten track
The artist behind the work is Thomas Dambo, whose mission objective is to get urbanites off the beaten track and into local green areas. “I find trash in the street and turn it into something new,” he says.
His outdoor troll installations – which have now popped up in Chicago, Pyongyang and Culebra in Puerto Rico too – are, in his words, an “ever-growing recycled sculpture fairytale.”
On your doorstep
But you won’t have to catch a flight or climb a beanstalk to find Dambo’s giants. The trolls are hidden in local forests, on hills and on the banks of lakes, and each hunt requires a little off-road rambling and google-mapping – perfect on a breezy autumn day.
Go to Dambo’s website, trollmap.com, for clues to help you hunt down the six secret spots in Rødovre, Hvidovre, Vallensbæk, Ishøj, Albertslund and Høje Taastrup.
