The Symbol Animal
Symbol Animal and contest
The Symbol Animal and Its Story
Each edition of SEGNI Festival has its own Symbol Animal and a guest artist as its ambassador, who creates its image. In the early editions, the visual identity was created by Dario Moretti. Over the years, the Symbol Animal has then been designed by Dario Fo, Altan, Alessandro Bergonzoni, Giorgia, Licia Colò, Alessandro Sanna, Virgilio Sieni, Arturo Brachetti, Vinicio Capossela, and even by Renaissance artist Giulio Romano and scientist Barbara Mazzolai.
From 2023 to 2025, SEGNI’s visual identity was created by our audience: young people under 30 submitted their work through an Open Call, and the proposal selected by the Artistic Direction became the image of that year’s edition.
Discover the visual identity of the 21st edition of SEGNI New Generations Festival (12–22 November 2026) in the Symbol Animal section!
IN THE ARCHIVE you can find the programmes and all the covers from previous editions.
The Symbol Animal provides a starting point for exploring themes and ideas that stimulate the creativity and reflections of young audiences. Each year, it is accompanied by a Bibliography, offering suggestions for reading and further exploration connected to the themes of the festival.
Above all, the Symbol Animal is at the heart of a long-running Competition, inviting everyone – children, young people, schools of all levels, and families – to take part by reinterpreting the image created by the artist through different artistic or narrative techniques.
The works created by participants are among the most important elements of the journey leading up to the festival: a way to leave a personal mark on SEGNI and to become fully involved in the experience.
2026: The Year of the Cow!
A familiar figure recognisable to people of all ages, capable of speaking to girls, boys, teenagers and adults through shared images, stories and meanings.
The COW has been part of human life for millennia. It is linked to nourishment, the land, work, care, landscapes, culture and art. It carries with it an ancient and tangible history, made up of closeness, mutual dependence and shared resources. Around the COW, nature and culture, biology and memory, territory and community come together. Just as in the festival, here too many elements coexist and transform together: living beings, environments, knowledge, gestures, languages. A community in relationship, which at SEGNI we call a cultural ecosystem.
Find out more about this year’s totemic animal by reading the description.
From a special twinning partnership
The image of the COW, the 2026 Symbolic Animal of the SEGNI New Generations Festival, was created by the artist KAVIIIK and forms part of the visual identity of Au Bonheur des Mômes, the French festival in Le Grand-Bornand.
This choice forms part of the ongoing partnership between SEGNI and the French festival, beginning with the tribute that Segni d’infanzia pays to Alain Benzoni, founder of Au Bonheur des Mômes. It was in Le Grand-Bornand, during the 2005 edition of the festival — the same year as the chosen image — that Segni d’infanzia found the impetus and inspiration to launch the Mantua festival, now known as the SEGNI New Generations Festival.
Choosing KAVIIIK’s COW means acknowledging those roots and keeping them alive through a bond forged by memory, exchange and transmission between two festivals that share a focus on the younger generation, art and cultural participation.
The Contest that will change you!
THE SEGNI 2026 COW: A COLLECTIVE EXHIBITION
Over the summer, SEGNI gathered ideas, feedback and responses from the audience and school community. The conversation remains open through Filo Diretto: teachers, educators and families can continue to share their observations and suggestions, helping us shape the activities dedicated to SEGNI’s Symbolic Animal.
This year, however, there is some exciting news: the live exhibition of artworks inspired by the Symbolic Animal is finally back!
From 15 to 22 November 2026, during SEGNI New Generations Festival, the Palazzo delle Nuove Generazioni – Il Boccio will host a large collective exhibition dedicated to the Cow, the Symbolic Animal of the 21st edition.
The image created by artist KAVIIIK and adapted for the SEGNI 2026 visual identity becomes a drawing to colour, personalise, transform and reinvent. There is no competition and there are no winners: every artwork becomes part of one large collective exhibition, brought to life through the participation of children, young people, schools and families.
SEGNI invites schools and families to:
– discover the information sheet dedicated to the Cow and its story;
– explore the Symbolic Animal bibliography;
– download and print the Cow image in horizontal A4 format (you can also collect a printed A4 copy from the Segni d’infanzia office at Via L.C. Volta 9B during office hours);
– make it your own, in the classroom or at home with your family – for example, by creating a background or setting for your Cow, or giving it your own colours, patterns and textures;
– deliver it to SEGNI at Via L.C. Volta 9B during office hours (tel. +39 0376 752417), so that it can become part of the exhibition during the Festival!
Please write your first name, age and town/country of origin on each artwork; your surname is optional.
All the Cows will be included in a real map of the exhibition, created by Gen Z participants together with the SEGNI Festival team. From 15 to 22 November, you can come back to the Palazzo delle Nuove Generazioni with friends, family or classmates and set off in search of your own Cow among all those on display. Admission to the Palazzo delle Nuove Generazioni is free of charge during the opening hours listed in the programme.
Artworks can be delivered to the SEGNI office, Via Volta 9B in Mantua, or directly to the Palazzo delle Nuove Generazioni – Il Boccio from Sunday 15 November onwards.
One Cow, many Cows. No competition: one big exhibition built together.
How can you enter?
People of all ages can take part:
– with your class;
– at home, with your family;
– on your own or together with friends.
Taking part is easy: download and print the Cow image in horizontal A4 format and transform it however you like. You can colour it, add patterns and materials, invent a background or a place for your Cow to live, draw what surrounds it, and make it completely your own.
Each participant creates their own Cow, which will become part of the large collective exhibition at the Palazzo delle Nuove Generazioni – Il Boccio, from 15 to 22 November 2026.
Please write your first name, age and town/country of origin on your artwork; your surname is optional.
This is not a competition: there are no winners. Every Cow contributes to an exhibition made up of different perspectives, ideas and imaginations.
Deliver your artwork to the SEGNI office, Via L.C. Volta 9B in Mantua, during office hours, or directly to the Palazzo delle Nuove Generazioni – Il Boccio from Sunday 15 November onwards.
Need a little inspiration? Call us on +39 0376 752417: we’ll be happy to give you some ideas to get started!
What you can win
Starting this year, the way you take part is changing: there is no longer a competition, no artwork is considered “better” than another, and there is no ranking based on likes in a dedicated Facebook gallery.
But there are still a few surprises!
Everyone who submits their Cow will have the chance to be drawn to receive free tickets to performances at SEGNI New Generations Festival 2026.
All the Cows will be displayed: the draw is only for the tickets and has no bearing on participation in the exhibition.
Terms and Conditions
Participation is open to people of all ages, individually, with family, with friends or with a school class.
To take part:
– download and print the Cow image in horizontal A4 format;
– personalise it freely with colours, patterns, backgrounds, materials and ideas;
– add your first name, age and town/country of origin; surname is optional;
– deliver it to SEGNI, Via L.C. Volta 9B in Mantua, or directly to the Palazzo delle Nuove Generazioni – Il Boccio from 15 November.
This is not a competition: there are no juries, rankings or “best” artworks. All works that follow these guidelines will be displayed in the collective exhibition at the Palazzo delle Nuove Generazioni from 15 to 22 November 2026.
Participants may also have the chance to receive free tickets to performances at SEGNI New Generations Festival 2026. Ticket allocation is independent of the artwork submitted.
By submitting an artwork, participants authorise SEGNI to display it and to use images of it for documentation and communication related to the project.
Need some inspiration? Call us on +39 0376 752417.
