'What is art?'

I asked a Japanese villager, what was her favourite art piece in Echigo Tsumari 2006. And she asked me in return, 'What is art?'

She then took up two glass cup filled with water and said in Japanese, 'If you place these two cups on the table without interfering them. It is a normal ordinary object, but an artist might tilt it 45 degrees so they sit on the table on a weird angle, and you would call it art. Is this art? I don't know.'

It made me think about what art is.

'What is art?'

...is like asking, 'What is a good meal?'

A meal can be delicious in its own right, but it needs people to admire and enjoy the food. To me, art is what is meaningful and enjoyed by people at the time and will continue to be delicious to generations in the future.