The Rabbit in Italy

We just finished a whirlwind of emotions, the fighting chance in the Milan Olympics in Italy. But does anyone know that this country also lies a huge rabbit toy?

According to the Wikipedia Page (via sources from the Sleek Magazine), in 2005, they put a huge pink rabbit made with straw and wool. 

The location is quite fascinating of where its located. It is in northern Italy, on Colletto Fava (a hill southwest corner from Milan, where the games were taking place). 

It's a funny sight to see, just seeing how a large rabbit could, 'Fall from the sky' from the universe. That's what the VIennese artist, 'Gelitin' did. They wanted to capture the feeling of 'small like a daisy'.

Here is an excerpt from their page:

'The things one finds wandering in a landscape: familiar things and utterly unknown, like a flower one has never seen before, or, as Columbus discovered, an inexplicable continent; and then, behind a hill, as if knitted by giant grandmothers, lies this vast rabbit, to make you feel as small as a daisy." -unknown from the Gelitin website.

I am currently reading an article from a German newspaper, Sleek Magazine in 2006, the time when Gelitin first unveiled the art sculpture. 

From the website itself, and according to the newspaper, Gelitin enlisted grandmothers who knitted a lot of wool. This fact was how the artist wants us to perceive it as, but in reality, we don't get the context in terms of how they made this. This process is unknown.

The inner toy was stuffed with disposable straws. 

You can climb, sit, interact with the bunny and even take naps. You can even see the plants that are growing on the body as it starts decaying from the ground. People who slept on it had nice impressions on the bunny, calling it 'warm' and 'inviting'. 

In the wintertime, people would bring their skis and try to jump over it. 

The artists themselves, all haling from Austria; Ali Janka, Wolfgang Gantner, Tobias Urban and Florian Reither has made several other projects including, 'Hugbox' (1999), 'Normally, Proceeding, And Unrestricted With Without Title' (2008) in London's Hayward Gallery where visitors are welcomed to row their boats on top of the London Skyline, and 'Cave' in 2014. 

They were shock value towards the media and the general public. 

In the end, the rabbit decayed in 2025, it almost fully decomposed in 2016. 

Now all that stands is the remnants of the rabbit. 

The Rabbit 'Hare' installation circa 2006 in Italy.