How 2 new Asian and African-focused cultural institutions are decolonising art in London
Two galleries recently opened in central London with a focus on decolonisation, showcasing artists and works from Asia and Africa
Last month, the Chinese art collector and patron Yan Du opened a non-profit art space in a magnificent Grade I listed building in Bedford Square, the 18th-century heart of London’s Bloomsbury district.
Calling it YDP – which stands for Yan Du Projects – she says that it and her other non-profit project, Asymmetry, which launched in 2020 in London to support a new generation of Chinese and Sinophone curators, are “guided by the same spirit: myself”. That spirit wants to ensure Asian artists claim their place on the global arts scene.
In the same week, in a Grade II listed building about 10 minutes’ walk from YDP, Lina Lazaar opened an arts institution called Ibraaz.
Like YDP, it is a UK-registered charity that describes itself as “a brave space for art, culture, and ideas from the Global Majority”. It, too, is the further amplification of an original concept.
Lazaar is the president of the Kamel Lazaar Foundation, which was set up by her Tunisian-Swiss father in 2005, and Ibraaz, which means “to shine a light on” in Arabic, grew out of the 2011 Arab spring protests as an online platform for visual culture from the Middle East and North Africa.
Now it has become a physical presence, with a cafe, bookshop, library and screening room all referred to on the signage by their Arabic names: oula, maktaba, iqra, minassa.