MEDITERRANEAN DREAMS: MARIO CERRONE & ROBERTA FOTIA OF OPA IPA LEO
Emerging from a shared Greek-Italian Mediterranean sensibility, the artist duo Opa Ipa Leo develops a visual universe where Aegean blue functions as a unifying aesthetic force, transforming mythic references and everyday fragments into contemporary poetic compositions.
PORTES EDITOR:
What are the origins of your collaboration?
MARIO CERRONE & ROBERTA FOTIA:
Our project began in 2021, after we (Mario Cerrone and Roberta Fotia) met and shared our studies at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. While studying painting together, we developed a shared fascination for Greece and the Mediterranean, with its elements, symbolism, and above all, its light. Over the years, we have traveled across various Greek islands and Southern Italy, searching for that light and energy which now form the core of our artistic research.
What art mediums do you use to compose your pieces?
Our works stem from a daily drawing practice, which is the starting point of our creative process. The imagery we develop draws from a Greek and archaic world, reinterpreted through a contemporary lens. From this foundation, we experiment with different materials and languages: from painting to sculpture, from modeling to mixed media techniques.
Three-dimensionality and the “poetics of the traveling fragment” are central to our research. In our collaborations, we have used materials such as cardboard and plaster, building forms and volumes. Color and light are mainly expressed through Aegean blue and gold, recurring symbolic elements in our work.
In three words, describe your art.
Joy. Movement. Roots.
Only 200 limited edition, hand-numbered prints featuring the work of Harris Papapetrou available for collection. Portes No. 12 Greeks & the Seas is distributed as a gift to patrons of the Ariston Foundation for Hellenic Culture & Art. Join us!
What inspired your artist name Opa Opa Leo?
The name comes from a childhood memory connected to Mario's summers in Greece. In the Peloponnese, together with his grandfather, he invented a simple card game called “Opa Opa Leo,” where each move was accompanied by the rhythmic words. This playful and spontaneous spirit is deeply rooted in our artistic practice.
Our work is infused with a joyful, vital energy: we create real oases of lightness that connect archetypes, emotions, and universal values. Music, together with dance and a sense of celebration, is a constant presence that accompanies our creative process and reflects its rhythm and expressive freedom.
Blue represents for us the ultimate symbol of the Aegean world. It is an all-encompassing color, embracing day and night, life and spirituality. It is a deep blue that resonates with authentic emotions and an inner, dreamlike dimension.
In what ways does the sea, and especially the Aegean, inspire your work?
Our backgrounds share a deep connection to the sea. Roberta, born in Reggio Calabria, brings a strong sensitivity to light and marine atmospheres, while Mario reconnects with his Greek roots.
Through our travels across the Aegean islands and Southern Italy, we have continuously sought those sensations, that energy, and that unique quality of light, transforming them into artistic material. The blue of the Aegean Sea, in particular, is an endless source of visual and emotional inspiration.
What emotional or symbolic meanings do the color blue and its hues hold for you?
Blue represents for us the ultimate symbol of the Aegean world. It is an all-encompassing color, embracing day and night, life and spirituality. It is a deep blue that resonates with authentic emotions and an inner, dreamlike dimension.
In our work, elements such as stars, dreams, desires, and nocturnal landscapes frequently recur, finding their natural expression in blue. It is a color that carries anthropological and cultural values rooted in the past, while also building a bridge toward the future. Alongside blue, we also use white in its infinite variations, as an element of balance and light.
What drives you to begin working on a project? Do you begin with a story in mind, or does imagery emerge intuitively as you create?
Our projects emerge from a layered imagination, nourished by fragments of everyday life and experiences gathered through travel. Memory and storytelling play a fundamental role, yet they never follow a rigid structure.
Images arise intuitively and develop through an organic process, giving life to characters and scenes suspended in an almost magical space. The aim is to create a new visual universe, while still echoing symbols and traces of the past.
How would you describe your artistic identity?
Our artistic identity is rooted in a continuous dialogue between past and present. We draw from symbols, myths, and elements of Greek and Italian traditions, reinterpreting them with freshness, rhythm, and elegance.
We see our work as a process of symbolic innovation: a way to project cultural heritage into the future, while making it more dynamic and accessible. Opa Opa Leo thus becomes a potential artistic movement, capable of merging roots with experimentation.
How do the Greek and Italian artistic traditions and cultural motifs inform your work?
There is indeed a strong common ground. Greek and Italian cultures share a deep aesthetic sensibility, a rich symbolic universe, and a narrative tradition rooted in the history of the Mediterranean.
We recognize in them the foundations of Western culture, a heritage we feel deeply connected to, and we believe must be preserved, valued, and at the same time innovated.
How do you negotiate creative differences when working as a duo, and what does collaboration bring to your practice that solo work wouldn't?
For us, collaboration is a source of strength and growth. Differences become a value: Roberta's sensitivity to light, color, and composition interacts with Mario's visual imagination and graphic mark, constantly opening up new possibilities.
Through deep mutual understanding and shared experience, we have developed a fluid and effective working method based on listening, dialogue, and trust. This allows us to go beyond the limits of individual work and achieve richer, more complex results.
What are the ideas or projects you are most excited to explore next, and how do you see your art evolving over the coming years?
We are interested in further developing the collaborative dimension of our practice, opening it up to new exchanges with other creatives.
In the future, we aim to build a true artistic brand, capable of engaging with the world of design, which is closely tied to our Italian and specifically Milanese background. Working between Milan and Athens, we are exploring the creation of objects and projects that synthesize the meeting of Greek and Italian culture, while transforming it into a creative bridge.
Is there a place in Greece special to you?
There is not just one place: the Aegean islands represent for us a symbolic and fertile territory, a constant source of inspiration.
What we deeply love about Greece is its atmosphere, its aesthetic, and its way of life, the ability to value the present moment, relationships, and emotions with simplicity and authenticity. Greece is our muse, the starting point from which our imagery develops.
