--- title: Hase Giant Rabbit Decays in Piedmont Italy on Mountain description: Was this inspired by "Donnie Darko" or something? canonical: https://time.com/94632/this-creepy-200-foot-stuffed-rabbit-is-decaying-atop-an-italian-mountain/ author: Bijan Stephen article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-09T19:56:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:09:34.126Z og:title: This Creepy 200-Foot Stuffed Rabbit Is Decaying Atop an Italian Mountain og:description: Was this inspired by "Donnie Darko" or something? og:url: https://time.com/94632/this-creepy-200-foot-stuffed-rabbit-is-decaying-atop-an-italian-mountain/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Creepy 200-Foot Stuffed Rabbit Is Decaying Atop an Italian Mountain twitter:description: Was this inspired by "Donnie Darko" or something? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Creepy 200-Foot Stuffed Rabbit Is Decaying Atop an Italian Mountain by [Bijan Stephen](https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/) ## Bijan Stephen May 9, 2014 7:56 PM UTC by [Bijan Stephen](https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/) ## Bijan Stephen May 9, 2014 7:56 PM UTC Stuffed animals are a near-universal symbol of comfort, safety, and familiarity, an association that’s so powerful it’s been exploited in a number of different areas—from the eminently lovable animal friends we see in Beatrix Potter’s _Peter Rabbit_ stories to the [sometimes strange](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted%5F%28film%29) stuffed animals we see on the big screen. The Viennese art collective [Gelitin](http://gelitin.net/) aren’t the latest to take advantage of the positive aura surrounding plushy toys, but their interpretation might be one of the creepiest. > [](https://twitter.com/mbhula24/status/329984211907923970) Over a period of five years, the group knitted a gigantic, pink, woolen rabbit named “Hase” (Hare)—200 feet long, 20 feet high—and, in 2005, plopped it on top of a hill in the Piedmont region of Italy. Why? It’s there for hikers to enjoy, and, by 2025, for it to decay completely. “Happily in love you step down the decaying corpse, through the wound, now small like a maggot, over woolen kidney and bowel,” the group writes on the [project’s website](http://gelitin.net/projects/hase/). “Such is the happiness which made this rabbit,” they continue, “I love the rabbit the rabbit loves me.” > [](https://twitter.com/BluScottishRose/status/452107028131901440) (h/t [Death and Taxes](http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/220645/giant-stuffed-rabbit-adorns-hilltop-in-northern-italy/)) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/94632/this-creepy-200-foot-stuffed-rabbit-is-decaying-atop-an-italian-mountain/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/94632/this-creepy-200-foot-stuffed-rabbit-is-decaying-atop-an-italian-mountain/"},"headline":"This Creepy 200-Foot Stuffed Rabbit Is Decaying Atop an Italian Mountain","datePublished":"2014-05-09T19:56:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:09:34.126Z","description":"Was this inspired by \"Donnie Darko\" or something?","url":"https://time.com/94632/this-creepy-200-foot-stuffed-rabbit-is-decaying-atop-an-italian-mountain/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Italy","Arts"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Bijan Stephen","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/94632/this-creepy-200-foot-stuffed-rabbit-is-decaying-atop-an-italian-mountain/","name":"This Creepy 200-Foot Stuffed Rabbit Is Decaying Atop an Italian Mountain"}}]}] ```