The Artista initiative at GNAM proposes, starting from Emilio Isgrò: Protagonista 2024, a program of "visiting artists", or visiting artists, conceived with the formula "one year, one artist, one room". As happens in some international institutions, the museum will "host" an Italian artist for a year, organizing a series of meetings and exhibiting a significant selection of his works in a room.

The initiative, promoted and organized by the Director of GNAM Renata Cristina Mazzantini, in collaboration with the Emilio Isgrò Archive, thanks to the contribution of Intesa Sanpaolo and Techbau, main sponsor, with the support of Borghese Contemporary Hotel, technical sponsor, offers the opportunity for the museum public to interact with the protagonists of Italian contemporary art, and for scholars, as well as students from the Academies and faculties of Valle Giulia, to experience first-hand and delve into the artist's work. The figure of Emilio Isgrò, one of the most authoritative of Italian culture, already celebrated at GNAM with an important anthology in 2013 and present in the museum's collections, was selected for 2024 on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of "Cancellation": a radical artistic gesture that revolutionized the language of art internationally.

It is the artistic gesture that distinguishes Isgrò's work: it starts from the word and supports memory, but has nothing to do with "Cancel Culture", which, on the contrary, openly contrasts. For "Artist at GNAM", Isgrò created the work “Isgrò cancels Isgrò”, with the cancellation of “Autocurriculum”, his autobiographical novel, which will be donated to the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art.