My surname “Viscasillas” is from Italian origin: “Viscaglia”. 

My great-grand father, Eduardo Viscasillas Blanque (1848-1938), was a spanish diplomat and composer, and in 1890 was the rector of the Royal College St.Clement of Bologna (Italy), institution founded in 1364.  He was also secretary of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, and Honorary Academician of the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna. He worked in the embassies of Rome, Paris and London. Author of over 100 musical works, he composed operas, waltzes, serenades, hymns, marches...In 1888 his musical composition "Notte in Venezia" received a prize from Giussepe Verdi in the International Music Exhibition of Bologna. In 1891, Eduardo and his son Manuel Viscasillas won the Medal of the Centenary of Mozart, on the anniversary of his death (1791-1891). The medal was imposed by the Mayor of Salzburg (Austria), for their interpretation of the K207Concerto for violin and orchestra at the Mozarteum. His compositions were performed by the major orchestras in the world, and were repertoire in Monaco and Biarritz (France). He was friend of Wagner's son-in-law, Franz Beidler, who signed for him several scores of the "Colossus of Bayreuth". Eduardo was also a friend of Massenet, Fortuny, Nobel Prize Laureate Giosue Carducci and many other great artists of the time, as well as the royal family. His son, Manuel Viscasillas, was a prodigy child on the violin. His musical work ¨Notte a Venezia¨ awarded in 1888, was performed in 1995 by the “Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra” (founded by Vladimir Spivakov), and by the eminent pianist Ricardo Blanco in its reduction to piano.

My project in Artrooms London 2018 is going to be an special tribute to my great-grand father’s artistic career and the coincidence of my path as a painter, almost like following his steps, 100 years later, through the exact same places where he made public his work. I am going to focus it especially in Bologna