Flo Kasearu’s solo exhibition BANANA – Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone will be on view at the Kai Art Center (Peetri 12, Tallinn) from March 22 to August 3, 2025. The exhibition considers the dynamics of public and private space through the lens of the Not in My Backyard phenomenon. The exhibition engages visitors in conversations around 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 explore ideas of exclusion, inclusion, and the complexities of land use.
Flo Kasearu (b. 1985) is an artist based in Tallinn, where she lives and works in the Flo Kasearu House Museum, which she founded in 2013. She studied Painting and Photography at the Estonian Academy of Arts and Multimedia at Universität der Künste Berlin under Rebecca Horn studio. Kasearu’s work is seasonal and explorative, often beginning as an open-ended game. She values irony as much as aesthetics and is interested in themes such as private and public spaces, vertical versus horizontal relationships, and the interplay between the monumental and the unstable. Her projects have addressed topics like economic depression, patriotism, nationalism, domestic violence, and power relations. Her practice spans videos, drawings, paintings, installations, and performances, often presented outside traditional gallery spaces, such as her home museum or a women’s shelter (“Festival of the Shelter”, 2018). Recent exhibitions include “Host” at Stanley Picker Gallery (2023), “Flo’s Retrospective” at Kunsthalle Recklinghausen (2022), “Cut Out of Life” at Tallinn Art Hall (2021), and “Endangered Species” at Tartu Art Museum (2020), alongside notable group shows at Kiasma, Helsinki, and the Performa 17 Biennial in New York.
‘Disorder Patrol’ (2021). Photo: still from the video
Kari Conte is a curator and writer focused on global contemporary art based in New York and Turkey. Her work is invested in ecological thinking and feminist perspectives. She was a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in Istanbul in 2021 and 2022. Formerly, she was Director of Programs and Exhibitions at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York between 2010 and 2020, where she is currently Senior Advisor. Additionally, she is Residency Curator for Kai Art Center in Tallinn. She has curated more than forty exhibitions; these include recent solo presentations by Fatma Bucak (2022); Alban Muja (2021); Sonia Leimer (2019); Chiara Fumai (2019); Hikaru Fujii (2018); and Jennifer Tee (2018). She regularly contributes to books, exhibition catalogs, and magazines, and has lectured and taught at numerous institutions.
Curator: Kari Conte
Exhibition team: Karin Laansoo, Kadri Laas-Lepasepp, Keidi Jaakson, Kärt Koppel
Graphic design: Daria Luchinina
Installation: Tõnu Narro, Mihkel Lember
The exhibition is supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia, City of Tallinn, Inbank and Metal Express.
