Ephemeral art

In these expressions, the criterion of social taste is decisive, which is what sets the trends, for which the work of the media is essential, as well as that of art criticism.

[6] However, attempts to establish some basic criteria as to which expressions can be considered art and which cannot have been somewhat unsuccessful, producing in a way the opposite effect and accentuating even more the lack of definition of art, which today is an open and interpretable concept, where many formulas and conceptions fit, although a minimum common denominator based on aesthetic and expressive qualities, as well as a component of creativity, is generally accepted.

[citation needed] An essential aspect in the genesis of art is its social component, the interrelationship between artist and spectator, between the work and its consumer.

A work of art responds to social and cultural criteria, of space and time, outside of which, even if it endures as a physical object, it loses its conceptual significance, the reason for which it was created.

Even so, Human beings have always been eager to collect and keep these objects for their unique and unrepeatable qualities, as documents of eras that endure in the memory, and which represent genuine expressions of the peoples and cultures that have succeeded one another over time.

Precisely, the collectible nature of certain objects, as opposed to others that are more quickly consumed, represented a first barrier between the classification of certain expressions as art and not others, often pejoratively referred to as "fashion", "ornament", "entertainment" and similar terms.

Museums and art academies, responsible for the conservation and dissemination of art, were also in charge of sponsoring and giving priority to some artistic expressions over others, and while paintings and sculptures entered these institutions without any problem, other objects or creations of various kinds were relegated to oblivion after having fulfilled their momentary function, or at most remained in the memory through written testimonies or documents attesting to their existence.

Contemporary aesthetics has presented a great diversity of trends, in parallel with the atomisation of styles produced in 20th century art.

Both aesthetics and art today reflect cultural and philosophical ideas that were emerging at the turn of the 19th–20th century, in many cases contradictory: the overcoming of the rationalist ideas of the Enlightenment and the move towards more subjective and individual concepts, starting with the Romantic movement and crystallising in the work of authors such as Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, represent a break with tradition and a rejection of classical beauty.

A new sensibility thus emerged whereby works of art acquired an autonomy of their own, evolving and transforming over time in parallel with the viewer's perception of them.

[8] Contemporary art is intimately linked to society, to the evolution of social concepts, such as mechanicism and the devaluation of time and beauty.

One of the countries where the fleeting and momentary character of life and its cultural representations is most highly valued is Japan: art in Japanese culture has a great sense of introspection and of the interrelation between human beings and nature, represented equally in the objects that surround them, from the most ornate and emphatic to the most simple and everyday.

This is evident in the value given to imperfection, to the ephemeral nature of things, to the emotional sense that the Japanese establish with their surroundings.