Presence: An exploration of the real and veiled in museums and galleries

In the example of the Venus statue there are the uncovered or so called original version and the covered or hidden version. Having the two objects, the visible and the covered, we have to acknowledge the fact that it is still an object, no matter of its presentation. These two different presentations of it are then divided into the known and the unknown. The statue covered with a veil raises more interest to the content behind the polypropylene material. When leaving more questionability our perception through imagination, is much more vivid. I like to refer the two statues to the Kantian noumenon and phenomenon, where the phenomenon the thing as it appears to an observer, is the original version of the statue and the noumenon may become the ‘thing-in-itself’ unknown and questionable to the viewer. In this case is the statue in the room present of absent? I believe that absence can be thought of as a kind of presence and presence as a kind of absence. However in this empty, white gallery room with the veiled Venus, the meaning, reading and our perception of the covered object changes fundamentally. Especially if the person is doubtful or clueless of what the veil hides. This scene can remind us of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, pointing out the false quality of appearances.