The Lesson of the Vine, 2018, is a public artwork integrating architecture, photography and viniculture

Rut Blees Luxemburg’s first public artwork in Germany is located in the rural setting on the Moselle river. The wine-growing village of Leiwen has commissioned the artist to make a work for their new community hall Forum Livia. Situated in the midst of vast grapevines, Leiwen is part of the main wine-producing regions in Germany.

Blees Luxemburg’s work The Lesson of the Vine shows the local vine plant in different stages of the yearly cycle, on three structural columns of the newly built public forum . Metaphorically, the vine holds up the community and its architecture, as the main cultural and economic dynamo of the region.

The Lesson of the Vine highlights the instructive potential of the plant: the life-skills of nurture, care and self-discipline. The Lesson of the Vine is particularly pertinent to the village’s location on the Moselle that connects Germany with Luxemburg and France through a shared history of viniculture.

The work was realised in close collaboration with engineering company Graphic Relief who have pioneered the new technology of using photography and concrete as part of an architectural process.