“Things that aren’t” – The Art of Micha Ullman

I see something you don’t see – and that is … art!

Sometimes the most exciting things are found where you least expect them: the shadow of a person, the space between two fingers or the emptiness in a pit. For the Israeli artist Micha Ullman, this is precisely where art begins – with the things you cannot grasp, yet which are still there.

In *Things That Aren’t*, Shalom Zuckerman tells the story of an artist who ‘loves the things that aren’t’. Houses emerge from earth that exist only in the imagination; light and shadow become letters; a single grain of sand can become a whole world. The picture book invites children to look closely – and to discover that imagination often begins where others see nothing.

Micha Ullman’s most famous artwork, too, tells of something that is missing: the ‘Library’ monument on Berlin’s Bebelplatz. Beneath a glass panel, one can see a room with empty bookshelves – the very spot where, in 1933, the Nazis burned thousands of books. Precisely because the books are no longer there, the artwork serves as a reminder of the voices and stories that were meant to be erased.

Together with Shalom Zuckerman and Judith Poznan, children embark on a journey of discovery into the world of Micha Ullman: they look, ask questions, discover – and learn how art can emerge from earth, light, shadow and memory.

Micha Ullman, born in Tel Aviv in 1939, is one of the most significant contemporary Israeli artists. His family fled Germany for Palestine in 1933. His sculptures and installations make memory, time and the traces people leave behind visible. Since the 1970s, his work has been featured in numerous public spaces, and he has been a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts’ Visual Arts Section since 1997. In 2025, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit.

Shalom Zuckerman grew up in Jerusalem and now lives in Amsterdam. He is a linguist, teaches at Utrecht University and is the nephew of Micha Ullman. His research focuses on language and multilingualism. With *Things That Aren’t*, he has translated his uncle’s artistic vision into a poetic picture book for young readers.

Judith Poznan, born in Berlin, trained as a bookseller before studying literature and journalism in Berlin. Stays in London shaped the rest of her career. She worked as a freelance cultural journalist. She has also published two novels.