2 | Do you want a hug?
3-way conversation between Brother Nut 坚果兄弟, UBERMORGEN and The Third Sister
Dear Luzius,
Receiving your letter was truly a warm moment, like sending charcoal in the midst of snow. Yes! I am in urgent need of a fierce embrace!
The year 2025 has truly been a story of frenzy, chaos, and absurdity. It was like a pubic hair I found in my fast food yesterday noon—curled, mocking, and highly suspicious, resembling a common “glitch” in this seemingly safe and healthy food assembly line.
Fortunately, there are still those moments of “flesh developing” (bodily manifestation/developing like film): face-to-face conversations with friends, laughter and pain, and those few and far between hugs (even though my body remains quite stiff). These memories remind me how to manufacture more moments of reality outside of the absurdity.
I imagine the winter where you are is longer than mine. You must face sub-zero temperatures and cope with the “curves” every time you step out the door. Although, you do have that “seemingly easy” heating. As for me, here in the warm subtropics, I grumble every day, lost and anxious—but at least I am in the warm subtropics. Incidentally, I also need a Balaclava (I just placed an order).
I am absolutely fascinated by your concept of “utilizing chaos.”
Yes, this reminds me of the crow—my Weibo avatar is a crow. The crow is a charming hacker.
I want to share a fun story with you that happened in 2018: In those many villages where heavy metals in the drinking water exceeded standards, after we initiated our art project, the local Environmental Protection Bureau, Forestry Bureau, Public Security Bureau, and other departments launched urgently, like activated antivirus software. At the time, I established dozens of WeChat groups with thousands of villagers inside; fear was spreading through the groups like a virus.
To reconstruct this network, I implanted a line of “code” into the groups—I said: “We have people in Beijing.” This was, of course, an utter fiction. But for the local officials lurking in the groups, this sentence triggered a deep vulnerability in their operating system. They do not fear an artist, but they are terrified of the invisible gaze from the central power hub (such as the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection). This “virtual Beijing” made the covert power operations of the grassroots instantly visible. This unexpected “interaction” and chaos effectively utilized the bureaucratic system’s own logic to counter the system. Ultimately, this fictional fulcrum, along with other series of art actions, numerous villagers, media outlets, NGOs, and netizens, leveraged tens of millions of dollars in funding to dig deep wells, providing safe drinking water for over ten thousand villagers.
This made me realize that embracing chaos, or even manufacturing chaos, is an unexpected but necessary “Crow Moment.” Just as my father—a farmer who lived his whole life in the countryside—unintentionally uttered that sentence which left a deep impression on me: “Some people wave the red flag to oppose the red flag.” Perhaps it is time to get used to “fishing in troubled waters” over a longer temporal dimension. To learn from the crow, to become a “smart organic dark shadow,” gliding through the cracks of the system.
Regarding the question you mentioned: If there were a “belief sculpture” in your village this winter, what would it measure every hour? I think, if this sculpture existed, what it would measure is likely “the over-supplied truth.” Yes, truth is often not a scarce commodity, but rather pieces of surplus, carefully processed industrial products, behind which lies infinite computing power…
At this very moment, I truly wish for a great fire in the night, illuminating the mountains, sparks shooting in all directions, firewood crackling and popping! Another intense embrace! (Hoping one day my body will no longer be so stiff)
Nut
亲爱的陆之，
收到你的来信，真是一个雪中送炭的温暖时刻。
是的！我急需来一个热烈的拥抱！
2025年真是一个狂热、混乱又荒谬的故事。它就像我昨天中午吃快餐时吃到的一根阴毛——弯曲、嘲弄、高度疑似，就像是这看似安全又健康的食品流水线的寻常“故障”。
幸好，还有那些“肉身显影”的时刻：朋友们面对面的交谈、笑与痛、以及为数不多的拥抱（尽管我的身体还是那么僵硬）。这些记忆提醒我，如何在荒谬之外，制造更多的真实时刻。
我想，你那边的冬天，比我这边的冬天更漫长。你要面对零下的气温，还要在每一次出门时应对“弯道”。尽管你有“看似容易”的暖气。而我，身在暖和的亚热带，每天发牢骚、迷乱、焦灼，但我身在暖和的亚热带。另外，我也需要一顶巴拉克拉瓦头套(刚刚下单购买)。
我非常着迷于你说的“利用混沌”。是的，这让我想起乌鸦——我的微博头像就是一只乌鸦。乌鸦是迷人的黑客。
我想和你分享一个发生在2018年的好玩的故事： 在那个饮用水里重金属超标的众多村庄，当我们发起艺术项目后，当地的环保局、林业局、公安局等多部门像被激活的杀毒软件一样紧急启动。我当时建立了几十个微信群，上千名村民在里面，恐惧在群里像病毒一样蔓延。为了重构这个网络，我在群里植入了一行“代码”——我说：“我们在北京有人。”
这当然是一句彻头彻尾的虚构。但对于潜伏在群里的地方官员来说，这句话触发了他们操作系统深处的漏洞。他们不怕一个艺术家，但他们极度恐惧来自中央权力中枢（如中纪委）的不可见的注视。这个“虚拟的北京”让基层的隐秘权力运作瞬间显形。这种意料之外的“互动”和混乱，实际上是利用了官僚系统自身的逻辑来反制系统。最终，这个虚构的支点、其他系列艺术行动、众多村民、众多媒体、NGO以及网友，一起撬动了数千万美元的资金，用于挖掘深水井，为一万多位村民提供安全的饮用水。
这让我意识到，拥抱混乱，甚至制造混乱，是一种意料之外但必要的乌鸦时刻。正如我父亲——一个一辈子生活在乡下的农民——无意中道出的那句让我印象深刻的话：“有些人举着红旗反对红旗。”或许，是时候习惯在一个更长的时间维度里“浑水摸鱼”了。向乌鸦学习，成为一个“智能有机黑影”，在系统的缝隙中滑行。
关于你提到的那个问题：如果这个冬天你们村子里有一件“信念雕塑”，它每小时会测量什么？
我想，如果这件雕塑存在，它测量的极可能是“被过度供给的真相”。是的，真相往往不是稀缺品，而是一件件过剩的、被精心加工的工业品，背后却需要无穷算力……
此时此刻，真希望来一场夜幕里的大火，群山照映，火星四射，木柴在劈劈啪啪响着！
再来一个浓烈的拥抱！（希望有一天我的身体不再那么僵硬）
坚果