Danish artist Thomas Dambo’s giant troll unveiled in Hódmezővásárhely

Hugging Olga, the troll sculpture by Thomas Dambo in the local forest in Hódmezővásárhely. Photo source: Kása-erdő Hódmezővásárhely Facebook page

A giant wooden troll sculpture by Danish artist Thomas Dambo was unveiled Saturday in the Kása Forest (Kása-erdő, also called Parkerdő) in Hódmezővásárhely, about 25 kilometers from Szeged. The installation is the first of Dambo’s works in Central Europe.

The 4.5-meter-tall figure, named Hugging Olga (Ölelő Olga in Hungarian), was assembled from recycled wood by local volunteers under the guidance of Dambo’s team from Scandinavia. Only the sculpture’s face was crafted in Denmark; the remaining parts were built on-site with wood donated by local businesses.

Mayor Péter Márki-Zay noted that, aside from the face made in Denmark, the sculpture was assembled by volunteers under the guidance of specialists from Scandinavia, using wood donated by local businesses.

The sculpture, completed three weeks ago, has already drawn thousands of visitors. It depicts a seated woman embracing a tall poplar tree. Her hair is made from branches, and the pendant on her wooden necklace doubles as a birdhouse.

Dambo, a leading recycling artist, has created around 170 large-scale troll sculptures worldwide, according to some sources, in more than 20 countries. His trolls, built mainly from discarded materials, are hidden in forests, mountains, jungles, and grasslands throughout Europe and North America, as well as countries such as Australia, Chile, and South Korea.

The Hódmezővásárhely City Council provided 32 million forints (about €82,000) for the project, including €50,000 for Dambo’s fee and 12 million forints for other expenses.

Born in Odense, Denmark, in 1979, Dambo aims to create 1,000 trolls worldwide, all documented on his official Trollmap website.