July 12, 2012 —"Play Me I’m Yours" cultural installation at U of T's Willcocks Commons
U of T lecturer Melanie Stevenson plays the piano as her husband Roger Gillott looks on. Photo: D. Tyszko
The bright green piano at U of T's Willcocks Commons is part of the Toronto 2016 Pan Am/Parapan Games "Play Me I’m Yours" cultural installation.
The Toronto campaign launched on Tuesday, with 41 pianos throughout the city, one for each Pan American country. The U of T piano was painted by Marcelo Suaznabar and represents Bolivia. Suaznabar came to Canada from Bolivia 10 years ago. “The symbols I used in my paintings are eggs, clocks and cubes. Eggs represent the fragility of everything around us, clocks represent time and the connection with nature. The cube is a particular character I use to show how the mechanical nature of human invention invades the natural order of things. These are symbols I’ve used for a long time in my paintings.”
"Play Me, I'm Yours" is an international artwork series that's already been in 26 cities, all of which have had different themes to their pianos. In total, about 600 pianos have been used in the series.

