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BANANA – Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone.
solo show at Kai Art Center, Tallinn
curated by Kari Conte.

Flo Kasearu’s solo exhibition BANANA – Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone explores the dynamics of public and private space through the lens of the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) phenomenon. BANANA invites visitors to engage in discussions about urban and rural development, public participation, local values, and property rights. Offering visual, auditory, and tactile experiences, BANANA combines installations, paintings, video, photography, and sculpture to create narratives about the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion that define contemporary development and the complexities of land use.

In BANANA, Kasearu asks: What is a community’s responsibility to the greater good when development reaches its doorstep? At community boards and meetings around the world, neighbors debate what, where, and who can build—whether it’s housing, renewable energy, transportation projects, or other forms of infrastructure. Regarding specific proposals, some individuals align with NIMBY views, while others back YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard). Typically, NIMBY perspectives regard development as negative or harmful—regardless of whether this perception is justified—while YIMBY supporters see development as beneficial for society as a whole, although this is not always the case.

Over 50 newly-commissioned and recent works exploring these timely ideological and political disagreements were on display at Kai. Visitors will arrive at an imagined—though possibly real—community where notices are publicly posted, energy flows, surveillance intensifies, power lines are severed, views are obstructed, towering structures loom excessively, and neighbors contend with each other and their rapidly reshaped communities.