Minimalism's foundational claim was the integrity of the unitary form. The wholeness that Donald Judd defended against relational composition. The singular object that refused internal hierarchy.
Yet the fold introduces a structural paradox: it achieves portability by inscribing permanent discontinuity, creates flexibility through predetermined breaking points. The foldable object is neither unitary nor assembled, but rather something minimalist theory left unexamined: a form that carries its own negation. A plane that contains the conditions of its own dissolution.
Madrid Folding Mattress consists of six equal squares arranged in a two-by-three grid. Four squares lie flat in a horizontal plane whilst two have been folded upward at an angle. The monochromatic charcoal grey unifies all six units, with narrow bands of marginally darker fabric marking each division. These bands function as both hinge and visual caesura. They are the seams that permit folding and the lines that establish the grid's internal logic.
'Vierkantrohre der Serie D' (1967) - Charlotte Posenenske
The configuration creates a stark formal event where the horizontal fields meet angled planes. The elevated squares form a continuous diagonal surface that rises from the base, creating a triangular void beneath. This void operates as negative space that defines the composition perhaps more forcefully than the solid forms themselves. The diagonal cuts across the otherwise orthogonal geometry, introducing dynamic movement to static modularity.
The asymmetric distribution generates compositional tension through imbalance. This recalls the structural logic of Charlotte Posenenske's Square Tubes series, where identical sheet metal elements could be arranged into multiple configurations, each generating different spatial relationships whilst maintaining the integrity of the modular unit. Here, however, the modules remain inseparable, bound by their hinges into a system that can be reconfigured but never disperse.
'No Title Required 3' (2010) - Robert Ryman
The charcoal grey operates as visual contradiction. The matte foam absorbs light uniformly across all surfaces, refusing reflective variation that would distinguish individual squares. This is colour as field rather than incident—a strategy that recalls Robert Ryman's monochrome investigations—but inverted. Where Ryman engages with light, Madrid Folding Mattress refuses it. The fabric provides the only chromatic variations, their deeper tones functioning like scored lines, establishing structure without fragmenting the unified field.
Madrid Folding Mattress resolves minimalism's tension between the unit and the series, constituting a modular system that cannot be disassembled. A grid in permanent relationship to itself. The fold lines inscribe transformation-as-structural-possibility, all the while maintaining coherence. This is Andre's modularity merged with Judd's insistence on wholeness, demonstrating that these predetermined breaking points can constitute a rigorous formal logic, rather than a compromise.