7 | Do you want a hug?

3-way conversation between Brother Nut 坚果兄弟, UBERMORGEN and The Third Sister

Dear Luzius,

I remember, after my grandmother passed away, I returned to Shenzhen and cremated a dog’s body. I put the ashes into 1,000 blue hydrogen balloons and released them into the sky, naming the project “The Dog’s Father is Flying in the Sky.” I don’t know where a life goes after it vanishes. I don’t know which specific flower blooms anew when one among a giant tree’s blossoms withers. Before my mother passed away, I even attended some strange healing groups as an observer. They claimed that sweet potatoes could cure everything—including cancer, weight loss (which might actually be true), and all kinds of complex illnesses. There were many people giving personal testimonies on-site to prove it was no lie. When people are desperate, they are far more willing to believe in any miracle than in moments of fanaticism.

To this day, I still keep the leftover morphine pills my mother took for her severe pain before she passed away. The process of dying is far more terrifying than death itself. Sometimes, I use art projects, alcohol, and any form of distraction to escape from it. My brother, who is seven years older than me, stays in our hometown; he faces all of this more directly than I do. Meanwhile, I have been fleeing the entire way.

Sometimes, I feel like the countless faces we see are all the exact same face. Especially during moments when the alcohol concentration in my body is high, at three o’clock in the morning when the rain is pouring down.

We meet, we leave, we hug, we cry, we find joy, we wander all the way—from day to night, from East to West.

I am incredibly happy that you are coming to China.

Before July, I hope to see you ahead of time during the gaps while you are setting up the exhibition in Dongguan, to witness firsthand the chemical reaction of the UBERMORGEN project there.

Compared to the quietness of Switzerland, perhaps China is indeed crazy enough—everything is so chaotic, disorganized, fraught with risk, yet bursting with vitality. The ancient, the modern, and the contemporary are all compressed together. What I want to say is that compared to Europe and America, this place urgently needs your friction. Like a steel rebar, plunging into the flood of our era. Plunging into the infrastructure.

A while ago, Wu Laobai, Zheng Hongbin, and I went to Laos (a quiet Southeast Asian Buddhist country). We went undercover into a transnational tourism fraud syndicate that tricks tourists into buying fake wildlife products at exorbitant prices (very few are genuine). This is a $400 million-a-year black market industry involving corruption, endangered animals, and weak state capacity behind the scenes. Before this, I found it hard to believe how one person could be deceived so easily by another. After going undercover, I was deeply shaken. It is a systemic manipulation of information—so brief in duration, yet so incredibly efficient. It reminds me of certain politicians and certain countries.

Scammers are sometimes bolder, more imaginative, and more thorough than artists. Perhaps we need to learn from their fearlessness, and their systemic patience in executing a major project.

Looking forward to meeting soon.

Hugs!!

Nut

亲爱的陆之，

我记得，在我奶奶过世后，我回到深圳，把一只狗的尸体火化，把骨灰放进1000个蓝色氢气球里，升空，名字叫“狗的爸爸在天上飞”。我不知道一个生命消逝后会去到哪里，我不知道一棵巨树的其中一朵花谢了后，又是哪一朵花重新绽放。在我母亲过世前，我甚至去过一些奇怪的治疗团体旁听，她们宣称红薯能治疗一切，包括癌症、减肥（这可能是真的）以及各种疑难杂症，现场有不少人现身说法，证明所说非虚。人在绝望的时候，比狂热时刻更愿意相信任何奇迹。

我至今还保存着我母亲在过世前因太过疼痛而服用的剩余吗啡药片。死亡的过程比死亡可怕得多，我有时候用艺术项目、酒精和任何转移注意力的方式来逃避这些。我的哥哥，大我七岁，他在老家，他比我更直面这一切。而我一路逃离。

有时候，我感觉，我们所见的无数脸庞都是同一张脸庞。特别是体内酒精浓度高的时刻，在深夜三点大雨滂沱的时刻。

我们相逢，我们离开，我们拥抱，我们哭泣，我们欢愉，我们一路流浪，从白到黑，从东到西。

你要来中国，我非常开心。

在7月份之前，我想在你在给东莞的展览布展的缝隙时刻，提前见到你，提前亲眼见到UBERMORGEN项目在东莞的化学反应。

相比瑞士的安静，或许，中国的确够疯狂，一切都那么混乱无序、风险重重又生机勃勃。古代、现代和当代都压缩在一起。我想说的是，相比欧美，这里更急迫需要你的摩擦力。像一根钢筋，插入时代的洪水里。插入基础设施。

前段时候，我和武老白、郑宏彬去了一趟老挝（一个安静的东南亚佛教国家）。卧底一个跨国旅游诈骗团伙，他们欺骗游客天价购买假的野生动物制品（极少数是真的），这是一个背后涉及腐败、濒危动物和虚弱国力的每年高达4亿美金的黑色产业链条。在此之前，我很难相信一个人怎么可能被另一个人如此轻易骗到，卧底之后，我被深深震撼。这是一个系统性的信息操纵，时间如此之短，却如此高效。让我想起了一些政客和一些国家。

骗子有时比艺术家更大胆更有想象力更彻底。或许，我们要向骗子学习他们的无畏。和做一个大项目的系统性耐心。

期待早日见面。

拥抱！！

坚果