INSTALLATION ART

When we considered what the essence of CITIZEN is, the phrase “Time is Light, Light is Time” came to mind. According to cosmologists, the beginning of the universe was also the beginning of light and time. When light was first produced, all time started. Light includes both visible and invisible light. Likewise time includes time that is visible, and time that is not visible.
Almost everything on Earth — from the breath of living things to the change of the Seasons — is revealed by light. To measure the cycle of these and other changes, humankind created the concept of “time,” which has greatly fostered the progress of civilization. The essence of time in its earliest concept was light. Without the shadow in contrast to light on a sundial, for example, early people would not have been able to read time. Time exists in darkness, but its measure was born in light.

– DORELL.GHOTMEH.TANE / ARCHITECTS

“Frozen Time” is the concept of the new installation art. It features 50,000 pieces of main plates that form the base of a watch and supports all the power for driving the watch. Thus, the base symbolically represents the basis of CITIZEN's watch-making excellence. The main plates themselves are not a moving part of a timepiece, but the watch without the main plate would not move. The installation art depicts “Time Frozen” with main plates suspended in air to suggest time suspended as the watch no longer moves. Moving lights over the main plates surround the visitors who move through the space while time stands still.

DORELL.GHOTMEH.TANE / ARCHITECTS is founded in January 2006 in Paris and practicing Architecture, Urbanism and Space Design. It is led by three architects: Dan Dorell, Lina Ghotmeh and Tsuyoshi Tane and collaborates with a multicultural team of 14 architects and professionals of interdisciplinary fields. The partnership gained an international reputation through its design of the Estonian National Museum which is currently under construction and through a series of cutting edge yet phenomenally sensitive projects. DGT is today one of the leading practices of the new generation of architects. The Practice has been awarded the NAJAP 2007-08' – French Ministry of Culture Architecture 2008 Prize, the Ressegna Lombardia di Archittettura 2008 Prize in Italy and has been nominated for Ian Chernikhov 2010 Prize.