Frankenstein Diary

Lena Kitsopoulou

The artistic universe of Lena Kitsopoulou through diary notes, sketches, and drawings. A journey of creation and birth unfolds through the pages of the new Onassis Foundation publication, "Frankenstein Diary." At selected bookstores and at the physical store of Stegi.

Writer, director, actor, painter, and rebetiko singer Lena Kitsopoulou – Onassis Culture’s resident artist for 2020-2021 – set up her studio and workshop space inside an old machine shop in Athens’ Renti area, a building currently being renovated by the Onassis Foundation to house the new Onassis Ready arts venue. Kitsopoulou kept notes in diary form throughout the time she spent developing both a theater production and a series of artworks inspired by the novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” (Mary Shelley, 1818). Notes written in her notoriously subversive style – with brash, post-pubescent power, and a heartfelt sincerity – and fiercely autobiographical from her very first entry, on March 11, 2021: “An embryo has, for some days now, implanted itself inside of me. I’m waiting to see whether it’ll take hold, or whether it will fall from me like some rotten cherry off a cherry tree.” It is these notes, reproduced almost word for word and placed alongside her sketches and paintings, that make up her “Frankenstein Diary”, a book issued by Onassis Publications.