Join us for the opening of ENSEMBLE – Gerrit Rietveld and the MAO Collection exhibition on April 24 at 7 PM in MAO.

Ensemble is the first exhibition in Slovenia to feature original works by Rietveld. The objects on display are from a private collection of furniture and household objects, now on public display for the first time. This collection, built up over several decades from the 1990s onwards, includes many key works from Rietveld’s furniture workshop. Founded in 1917, this workshop became the hub of Rietveld’s creative collaboration with the furniture maker Gerard A. van de Groenekan, where they spent decades developing new designs and producing variations and iterations of his seminal pieces.

The exhibition places this private collection within the broader context of the MAO collection and Slovenian modernist design. The works and projects of Ciril Tavčar, Niko Kralj Oton Jugovec and others are presented alongside Rietveld’s pieces, linking with them in terms of concept, material, or chronology to form a harmonious whole. Accompanied by a series of related programmes, the exhibition offers more than a retrospective view; it re-reads Rietveld’s design processes to highlight their unexpected relevance for today, particularly in their approach to natural resources, sustainable materials and social design.