Monday, September 19, 2005

Gelitin, a group of artists from Vienna, has erected a pink bunny measuring 200 feet in length (about 60 metres) on the side of a northern Italian mountain.

The artwork, titled “Hase” (which translates simply as “Hare”), is located at a height of 1600m on the mountain Colletto Fava, close to Bar La Baita, above the Village of Artesina, Piemonte, Italy.

The soft rabbit is constructed out of pink wool, and is expected to remain on the mountain until 2025. Though it seems like a giant children’s toy at first glance, a closer look or an in-person exploration quickly leads to the realization that the rabbit’s side is split open, and its entrails pulled out.

The group designed it, but claims it was “knitted by dozens of grannies out of pink wool.” The group’s website, however, provides the actual credits for all the people involved.

Group member Wolfgang Gantner said: “It’s supposed to make you feel small, like Gulliver. You walk around it and you can’t help but smile.”

The press release provided by the group explains rabbits as “the things one finds [while] wandering in a landscape, familiar things and utterly unknown.” Though they compare the initial reaction they hope people to have to that of those encountering the giant Gulliver in Gulliver’s Travels, looking around it in awe, the group does make it clear that they hope for people to climb onto the rabbit to explore and relax on it.