File:Count down 21st Century Monument for Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Akasaka, Tokyo Japan (31090634948).jpg

Mechanical and functional requirements worked out between TBS and Citizen シチズン Watch Company, Tokyo. Developer: TBS Tokyo Broadcasting System, Akasaka, Tokyo Date: Installed December, 1992.

Hundertwasser comment about the work: This monument is a token, a landmark serving as an ambassador for a peace treaty between men and nature. (...) A consciousness of eternal cycles in harmony with nature and human creation becomes vital, just as timeless constant values, the knowledge of the cosmos where no up and no down exists, no right and no left. It is not the time, which is important but the cycle which develops in organical, beautiful form. Time should create new life, slowly, in spiral form, vegetativ and creative. Time should not destroy past time, should not create last panic before the time of tomorrow. The idea of counting time is a human misleading idea, an invention like the straight line, but there is only eternity developing in an organical cycle. (...) The same water is permanently flowing through the purification plant. The way of the water through the roots of the plants takes about 1 hour. The roots of these waterplants are producing oxygen and are turning what we call dirt into plant substance. We become witness of a permanent purification and renewal process in harmony with the laws of nature. (excerpt from Hundertwasser's text of August 1992) (from: Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 2, Taschen, Cologne, 2002, p. 1261)

Information: Hundertwasser designed the ecological monument for the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) in commemoration of the company's fiftieth anniversary in 2001. The digital display of a Citizen Clock, which could be read from both sides, counted down the days to the anniversary. The monument was erected on the TBS grounds in Midoriyama/Yokohama in December 1992 and moved to Akasaka in 1994. The accompanying program upon arrival of this event with the theme "Our Beloved Planet, Earth" was focusing on the everchanging Japan, the global environment and mankind. (Source: hundertwasser.com).