The character of Ornellaia 2008, the third edition of Vendemmia d’Artista, was “L’Energia”. It was chosen to describe this deeply intense wine. In Bolgheri it is as if the sun’s energy found a storage cell in the grapes, which is gradually released over time, making the wine vibrate. Rebecca Horn was the artist chosen to interpret “L’Energia”.

Rebecca Horn (1944-2024), sculptor, performer and director, was a pre-eminent figure on the global art scene. She lived and worked in Germany. A sophisticated and versatile artist, Rebecca Horn became famous in the 1970s for her performances and installations before going on to produce drawings, photography, videography, literary texts and theatre direction. A recurrent motif in her art was the relationship between the body and space, movement and music, centred on the interaction between the object, spectator and space. Her artistic career was distinguished by an exceptional expressive, poetic and universal power.

She sought inspiration in her extraordinary personal archive, which included memory, science, music, literature, mythology, magic and alchemy, aimed at analysing the age-old dilemma of the meaning of human existence and evolution. Leading museums around the world have devoted retrospectives to the artist as well as hosting her works.

For “L’Energia” of Ornellaia 2008, Rebecca Horn designed a kinetic copper and mirror sculpture that, inspired by the winemaking process, weaves a relationship with the space. The elements and the environment contribute towards creating an alchemical process between liquid, solid and atmospheric forms in which matter transforms into energy. Moreover, the double magnums vaunt exclusive paper labels that are made unique by a pictorial mark from the artist. The Imperial bottles have copper elements, each of which are different, while the only Salmanazar becomes a sculpture that reproduces the artist’s copper and mirror work that stands in Ornellaia’s barrique cellar.
Some of the large-format bottles of Vendemmia d’Artista “L’Energia” were auctioned by Mrs. Christiane Gräfin zu Rantzau, chairman of Christie’s Germany, on 19 May 2011. The profits were donated to the Freunde der Nationalgalerie in Berlin.