1000 life-size sculptures are touring the world. This army of humanoids was created from trash, collected from garbage dumps and industrial, mostly high-tech waste, like computer parts or scrap metal, cans and bottles.

The Trash People have embarked on a journey to the world's most spectacular sites. The project started in 1996 in the arena of the Roman amphitheater in Xanten on the Rhine. Next the sculptures were shown in Paris in front of the modern arch of La Défense (photos available from Magnum photographer René Burri). They appeared on Moscow's Red Square in front of the St. Basil Cathedral and then proceeded to China to be carried uphill by coolies to a two-mile stretch of the Great Wall. In May 2002 the trash-army was shipped to Egypt and positioned in the desert next to the Giza pyramids near Cairo.

HA Schult has long been the enfant terrible of the German art scene, often using garbage to construct grandiose "images" in unexpected settings. In 1970 he covered a street in Munich with trash and paper and was immediately arrested. In 1976 he filled St. Mark's square in Venice with old newspapers in an overnight surprise scoop. In New York HA Schult hired a stunt pilot to crash a Cessna into the garbage dump on Staten Island and in 1983 created a paper river in downtown New York, using old issues of the New York Times, with the World Trade Center towers as a backdrop.

The Trash People project is HA Schult's most ambitious and arguably most beautiful endeavor yet. The logistics of shipping 1000 6-foot sculptures around the world and getting permission to set them up at national shrines like the Chinese Wall or the Giza Pyramids are staggering. The project is sponsored by the German Post office and Danzas international movers. This is a work in progress. Soon the trash army will be arranged in front of the New York skyline. Other trips are planned to Australia's Ayers Rock, to the Matterhorn in Switzerland, to Rio de Janeiro and to the icebergs of Antarctica. One little trash-man has even made a trip into space, carried by a German astronaut onto the "Endeavour" space shuttle.