Lens-Artists Challenge, #372: Ephemeral

This week it’s Tina’s turn to host the Challenge, and her theme is ‘Ephemeral‘. She began her post with a, ‘short and simple definition of the word ephemeral – “lasting for a very short time“.’ A ‘short time’ can be quite subjective, from a few hours to a few days, or even longer. To my mind, an alternative term is ‘temporary’, and there’s nothing more temporary that interests me than street art.

First, a confession: I was all amped up this morning to get out and about and record some of my favourite pieces of street art around the neighbourhood. But what happened as I was bending over to put some rubbish in the bin? I felt something move in my back and I think I slipped a disc. So here I am, temporarily (ephemerally? 😉) confined to bed. So instead, I’m going to raid the camera roll on my phone for some of my favourite pieces from Aveiro and Meco.

This first piece you’ve definitely seen before, depicting a vampiric figure with the message ‘we scream but we have no voice: No! No!’ Back in 2021, when I first ‘found’ it in a back street in Aveiro it had already been there for several years and was quite worn even then. But nowadays, this photo was taken in October 2025, it’s even more decayed. With the development going on in this street at the moment, I suspect it might not last much longer.

A few years ago, I took a walk around Meco looking for pieces by the Portuguese street artist Dalaiama, who first visited the area in 2006, then again – I think – around 2011. He makes pieces protesting capitalism and the ‘fat cat’ culture in Portugal, and is known to work especially on electricity substations and junction boxes. I came across one spendid piece tucked away in an abandoned structure in Meco, which was in lovely condition. Sadly, a few years later the whole structure was demolished and the piece lost.

This second piece from Dalaiama is representative of the ‘fat cat’ art with a Pac-man styled figure in a car with a top hat gobbling up what I think represents a dove of peace. Often these stencils are surrounded with a red border, or are over a pile of ‘euros’. This piece on a wall was around for several years, and I had an image of it somewhere, but in the past few years it was partially covered with a generic tag. A shame, really.

Back in Aveiro, one of my favourite spots for street art is the Yacht Club. Just down the road from the Club is the overpass of the A25 road that leads to Barra. The concrete supports of the overpass are naturally a tempting spot for street artists, and are covered with tags. Someone also thought it would be a good idea to cover one of the tags with a load of publicity posters for the television series, Andor. Not the second season from 2025, though, but the first season, released in 2022. By the time I noticed these posters, the elements had already done their worst, and the paper was peeling from the concrete support, but the Star Wars style was unmistakable.

My final examples of ephemeral street art are two tags on the side of a building that itself is proving ephemeral in its own way. Just outside the coastal town of Costa Nova is a long abandoned stone building. When I first came across this building, probably over a decade ago, it was in much better condition, though even the the elements had been to work on it. But now all that remains are a couple of walls marked with these old tags that themselves are nearly invisible. Within a few years time there will just be some coloured bricks on a stone wall, if that survives.

Themes for the Lens-Artists Challenge are posted each Saturday at 12:00 noon EST (which is 4pm, GMT) and anyone who wants to take part can post their images during the week. If you want to know more about the Challenge, details can be found here, and entries can be found on the WordPress reader using the tag ‘Lens-Artists’.

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St. George mural on a Sofia street

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