ROULA PARTHENIOU | YYZUNLIMITED
SATURDAY 02 MAY 2009 – SATURDAY 13 JUNE 2009

OPENING RECEPTION | FRIDAY 01 MAY 2009, 8:00PM – 10:00PM

YYZUNLIMITED

In conjunction with YYZ’s thirtieth anniversary, and consistent with its current mandate to promote artistic practice beyond the exhibition of artworks, the board of YYZ would like to present a new initiative, entitled YYZUNLIMITED.

This new initiative will invite artists to imagine and reinvent the organization as a site of opportunity through a series of interventions. These interventions would engage potential sites outside of YYZ’s regular programming in its two galleries and vitrine: the reception area and the website may be potential sites as an example.

In order to set an appropriate tone on the eve of YYZ’s thirtieth anniversary, the board has invited Roula Partheniou to utilize the vitrine at her discretion. YYZ has also invited a couple of artists who have exhibited with YYZ in the past to kick-start this initiative in the fall for our 2009-2010 programming year. There is no prior restriction as to what form these interventions may take providing they do not interfere with YYZ’s regular programming and daily operation. This initiative will encourage artists to freely imagine new ways to engage YYZ through this mutually empowering opportunity. The form and duration of these interventions will be determined at the discretion of the staff, programming committee and the artists.

On a closing note, it is the hope of the board that these interventions transform YYZ through the generation of exciting new ideas/practices/works and that they will demonstrate new ways for artists and an artists-run centre to mutually empower each other. Last but not least, the presence of the interventions will serve as material evidence of building a lasting community that is not determined by the duration and protocol of the regular exhibition structure.

ROULA PARTHENIOU is an artist living and working in Toronto. Her work is marked by a concern for marriage of material and form and is drawn together by a strong sense of both logic and play. Using familiar objects as a starting point, Partheniou plays simple games using an objects’ own inherent rules and physical properties to transform them, often employing processes such as repetition, permutation, multiplication and duplication. Partheniou graduated from the University of Guelph with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and is represented by MKG127 in Toronto.