Kumu Documentary: Living in a Piece of Furniture
Dir Lex Reitsma
The Netherlands 2024, 53 min
In Dutch, with English subtitles
The life and work of the Dutch architect and furniture designer Gerrit Rietveld (1888–1964), based on the example of Rietveld Schröderhuis.
Truus Schröder’s love for Gerrit Rietveld led to the design of the iconic Rietveld Schröderhuis in 1924. The first house that Rietveld designed, in collaboration with, and for Truus Schröder, was a huge experiment. Truus lived in the house for 60 years. Not only was she Gerrit Rietveld’s lover, she was also his muse and his creative partner, with whom he shared a love for design and a common aesthetic. After her death, the house was thoroughly restored, even though Rietveld was of the opinion that his houses should be torn down after 50 years. Rietveld later said that she was the only person who could live in this unique and not necessarily comfortable house.
Other houses that Rietveld designed clearly show ideas that originate from the design of the Rietveld Schröderhuis. These Rietveld houses – in the forms that Rietveld originally intended them – are preserved for posterity thanks to the current owners, who are keeping up and restoring their homes to this very day, with love and care.
The film explores Rietveld’s work from the perspective of Truus’s love for the man and his work, documented in an audio interview from 1982, and in interviews with her loved ones.
