installation view, 2013

photo G.J. van Rooij

Composition of mistakes (solo concerto) started out as a private performance, as an attempt to master, in just one weekend, a violin concerto by Bach again, a piece that I often played as a child. At the end of this weekend I made an audio recording of the result of my attempts. This recording was subsequently translated by a specialist into the binary music notation that is used for pianola’s and barrel organs. I asked him to also translate the original score of Bach’s concerto into this language. The result was two paper rolls with a length of 12 meters each: the first contained the correct version, the second presented my own attempt, including the mistakes I made while trying. After that I asked him to make a book out of only my mistakes. Every hole in this book is a tone and represents a misreaching for the right note. This is the composition of mistakes, a book in which a form has been given, in a very precise manner, to failing.