The Lesson of the Vine

The Lesson of the Vine, 2018, is a public artwork in Leiwen on the Moselle river in Germany.

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 new village centre. The vine holds up the community hall, 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 vines that climb up the pillars of the new hall graphically manifest the need to nurture and cultivate. 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.