“O man! Attend!
What does deep midnight’s voice contend?
I slept my sleep,
And now awake at dreaming’s end:
The world is deep,
And deeper than day can comprehend.
Deep is its woe,
Joy—deeper than heart’s agony:
Woe says: Fade! Go!
But all joy wants eternity,
Wants deep, wants deep eternity.”

Dirk Salz takes an excerpt from Thus Spake Zarathustra (1885) by Friedrich Nietzsche to state that “But all joy wants eternity, wants deep, wants deep eternity”.  Somehow, the phrase that gives the exhibition its name seems to refer to the work of the German artist. The resin and pigment pieces compose different layers of knowledge and overflow the very integrity of the work: Which one is the first layer? Where does the play of superimpositions begin and end? Salz reflects on the fact that reality cannot be found on the surface, but only once you delve into it, once you immerse yourself. There is an imminent desire to know more of what we are capable of, where suggestion functions as an engine in the composition of readings.

Pigment and resin compose a choreography between what is and what seems to be, highlighted by the subjective character of the reflection of the material: the work depends on the space and the gaze that appreciates it, a characteristic leitmotiv in the artist’s work.

But all joy wants eternity will present the new work of Dirk Salz; resin works of the series “deep immersions”, with color fields in different layers, and some “fades” where the different shades of pigments are confused with each other. Finally, his series of “fragmented layers” will be presented, Plexiglas boxes that house sheets of color arranged one on top of the other. Despite the use of different materials, all the compositions suggest that there is always a deeper layer than the visible one, and that all of them coexist between the depths of their interpretations.

In the same way Nietzsche continued: “The world is deep, and deeper than the day can comprehend”. It may be that in the continuity of the night it is possible to understand beyond the visible. It may be that Dirk’s work dives into its nooks to reveal hidden realities.

María Valcárcel