Lau Man Pan’s project, Everything Will Be Fine, explores the anxiety of being perceived as foreign within an unfamiliar nation, reflecting on how societies respond to “the Other”, which is sometimes treated like an allergen, or even a virus, something to be controlled, contained, or excluded. The project combines multiple mediums into a single discourse.
An enlarged collage of non-white faces collected from a local newspaper of a year intertwines with drawings and stitched threads. Three drawings depict body parts affected by recurring rashes. Dozens of cream and ointment containers, decorated with thread and sealed in plastic bags, form an archive of attempted healing.
A video monologue reflects on bodily and emotional sensitivity, linking the elements into a fragmented portrait of vulnerability and repair. Through images and materials associated with irritation and protection, the work examines the tension between vulnerability and defence. It asks where these reactions originate and whether they truly protect or instead amplify harm. The metaphor of the allergen becomes a way of thinking about the social construction of the foreign body: something perceived as threatening and potentially contaminating simply because it is unfamiliar.
The exhibition therefore opens the programme by confronting the logic of separation. What happens when fear of difference produces defensive reactions? What is being protected, and from whom? The work suggests that while a cure may be unachievable, relearning how to live with difference is not in vain.
𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:
20 Nov | 6 – 8 pm Friday
Free entrance
𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀:
20 Nov - 6 Dec | Thursday to Sunday, 2- 7 pm
3 euro donation
𝗩𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲:
NGO DEI Gallery
Westeinde 25, 2512GS, The Hague