The German artist Gregor Schneider, who is known for his unsettling installations, will transform a square in downtown Athens next month but the end result may, for now, be hard to decipher. Schneider plans to turn the site into a “place of shelter’ according to a cryptic press statement. Omonia Square will become a “neutral zone hidden from attackers and the watchful eye of Google maps alike” as part of the Onassis Cultural Centre's Fast Forward Festival 4. The concept of camouflage will be key (though perhaps the main clue is in the title of the piece: Invisible City, 2-14 May). Schneider usually causes a stir; Haus u r— the artist's childhood home in Rheydt, north-west Germany, which he has reconfigured since 1985—is a work in progress. In 2008, he outlined plans to create a room in which a person could die (The Dying Room was eventually unveiled at the Kunstraum Innsbruck in 2011).
