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Fionnuala McHugh

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.
It is no coincidence that the launch of both spaces in Central London happened during Frieze London week, when galleries put on their most alluring displays as the art world gathers in the city for the art fair. Until fairly recently, that world was predominantly white and Western.
But decolonisation – the critical examination of imperial legacies and the inclusion of global perspectives – is now part and parcel of how Western cultural institutions are transforming into more diverse and welcoming spaces.

In the UK, you can study it at the University of the Arts London’s Decolonising Arts Institute, launched in 2019 with a mission to change “ways of seeing, listening, thinking and making”.
The headlining exhibition that opened on October 8 at Tate Modern – an offshoot of what used to be the National Gallery of British Art, founded in 1897 – is “Nigerian Modernism”. It showcases the achievements of Nigerian artists working, as the website puts it, “before and after the decade of national independence from British colonial rule in 1960”. And it is not simply Frieze week window-dressing: it continues until May 2026.
Meanwhile, at the Royal Academy of Arts – founded in 1768 – the major new exhibition is “Kerry James Marshall: The Histories”. In his paintings, the black American artist uses traditional Western art to depict people who were usually absent from it. That exhibition continues until mid-January 2026.
“Even a decade ago, this was unimaginable,” says Billy Tang, YDP’s artistic director, who was born in south London to Vietnamese-Chinese migrant parents and grew up in the era of the far-right National Front.
The family moved out when the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence – still one of the UK’s most notorious racist killings – happened nearby.
Tang worked for British art non-profits but yearned to escape the weight of Western cultural dominance. By 2013, he was working at a commercial gallery in Beijing, before becoming senior curator at Shanghai’s Rockbund Art Museum and then, in 2022, executive director at Hong Kong non-profit art institution, Para Site.

He first met Du in her capacity as an art collector. “She stood out because what she was doing was pioneering,” he says.
“Typically, if you’re a collector and you’re going to commit yourself to philanthropy, you’d go for the most obvious side and maybe just think about artists. But one of the first things she did was to concentrate on supporting curators through establishing Asymmetry. That shows the long-term engagement she has.”
At Para Site, he had collaborated with Asymmetry, and Du began to discuss with him about her new project. Her vision, he says, finally convinced him to return to London in September.
YDP is about a three-minute walk from the British Museum, founded in 1753; it is also next door to the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office – they share the same 18th century facade – though YDP firmly states there is “no connection” between the two.
Talking over egg tarts and pineapple buns, Tang is enthusiastic, earnest and fluent in 21st-century international curatorial-speak.
He is also a little wary about being back. Several times, he mentions the rise of the new far-right. “Like many places, this region has its share of divisions and internal issues, and yet that’s precisely why it’s so meaningful to showcase artists from other parts of the world and give them visibility here.”
Downstairs, across three floors, there is an inaugural exhibition by Guangzhou-based Chinese female artist Duan Jianyu. In a studio that was part of the former coach house, YDP’s first artist-in-residence, Harit Srikhao from Thailand, is working on a three-month project on the 2018 rescue of the boys’ soccer team from a flooded cave in Chiang Rai province.
Despite its historic heft, the building has a deliberate air of impermanence. Du envisaged YDP as “a suitcase project”.
Beau Architects, based in Hong Kong, has pared the rooms back to white walls and erected aluminium structures for lights and artwork that can be packed away quickly. The idea is to reflect a sense of diaspora. “Our journey is our home” is written above the letterbox on the front door.

“Decolonisation is a powerful concept for all of us,” says Tang. “We’re trying to think of ways to decentre the dominance of Western thinking.” For YDP, that means initiating projects in the city and far beyond.
“We maintain a collaborative approach that isn’t necessarily fixed to the building, and we’re not territorial about this. We recognise our privilege being in this area, and it’s important to support the wider ecosystem.”
By contrast, Ibraaz – just round the corner from Broadcasting House, the headquarters of the BBC – sees itself as a place where people can meet for Tunisian food, books, films and music. Like YDP, the building on Mortimer Street, built in 1910, exerts monumental force. Both these new, moneyed, disrupting institutions have unexpectedly chosen to install themselves in old listed edifices.
Why select a space that is so … “Haunted?” says Hammad Nasar, Ibraaz’s director of programmes and content. “Think about it as an attempt at keyhole surgery on the body politic. For that, you need to be where the operation takes place and that’s here, in the centre.”
Nasar, originally from Pakistan, is new to his job, but he is familiar with the wider shifting landscape.

From 2020 to 2022, he was principal research fellow at UAL’s Decolonising Arts Institute. He is also a strategic adviser to Asymmetry, and from 2012 to 2016, he was head of research and programmes at Hong Kong’s Asia Art Archive.
When he arrived at AAA, it was 12 years old. Nasar draws a comparison between that and his role at Ibraaz, which has existed online for 14 years. “Other people have built up the muscle and now they’ve invited me to come in and flex it.”
Asked about being “a brave space”, he says, “It’s aspiring to be a brave space. We want to be able to host conversations that many cultural institutions are shying away from … I would contend there are maybe places in the North Atlantic that are more problematic for a cultural conversation than the South China Sea.”
The bookshop is curated by the Palestine Festival of Literature; the programme of book launches includes Gaza: The Story of a Genocide and Palestine is Everywhere.
In Ibraaz’s majilis – the “gathering room” on the ground floor – 75 discarded chairs from Ghana have been assembled, surrounded by shelves of jute sacking. The installation was created by Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama and is called Parliament of Ghosts. Mahama is not issuing the now-standard demand for a return of looted objects. This is the reverse of restitution; he is bringing historical objects to the mother of parliaments.

As an ongoing project, Maham’s work indicates the change in historical direction. And that, as Nasar puts it, is where the real work starts for Ibraaz. “How do we make our ghosts our guests? How do we share our place? How do we share our histories?”
As Tang says, recalling an evening at YDP when he had cooked dinner for himself and Harit Srikhao, “It’s humbling to think 100 years ago, the owner of the building would never have imagined that members of the Asian community would gather here to share a meal of rice … it’s a powerful testament to how much our society has evolved.”


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An installation view of “Duan Jianyu: Yuqiao” at YDP art space, in central London. Photo: Wenxuan Wang

YDP is in a listed building in Bedford Square, in the Bloomsbury district in London, the UK. Photo: Jooney Woodward

Yan Du at YDP. Photo: Jooney Woodward

Billy Tang, when he was executive director and curator of Para Site in Hong Kong, in 2022. Photo: Para Site

The interiors at YDP were designed by Hong Kong-based Beau Architects. Photo: Thomas Adank

An installation view of “Duan Jianyu: Yuqiao” at YDP. Photo: Wenxuan Wang

An installation view of Ibrahim Mahama’s “Parliament of Ghosts” (2025) at Ibraaz, in London. Photo: Hugo Glendinning

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Arts

Two galleries recently opened in central London with a focus on decolonisation, showcasing artists and works from Asia and Africa


Two galleries recently opened in central London with a focus on decolonisation, showcasing artists and works from Asia and Africa.


Chinese culture

How 2 new Asian and African-focused cultural institutions are decolonising art in London

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Two galleries recently opened in central London with a focus on decolonisation, showcasing artists and works from Asia and Africa

Two galleries recently opened in central London with a focus on decolonisation, showcasing artists and works from Asia and Africa