MICHA ULLMAN, NOBODY, 1990
Steel, 320 x 320 x 260 cm
Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur
This Israel artist became famous with his memorial to the book burning at Bebelplatz, visible only through a small window in the structure: an empty library. With “Nobody,” he has situated a hermetically sealed cube of emptiness and silence into the noisy, crowded streets. Closed openings suggest accessibility that has been denied; what remains is a place of memory. Positioned across from the Jewish Museum, the “Nobody” is the antithesis to the synagogue memorial on Axel-Springer-Straße. It also references Gunter Demnig’s “Stumbling Stones” that commemorate the Jews of the neighborhood who were deported.

