NABUZARDAN 2024: THE COMPLETE PROGRAMME

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10th, THE FAMILY-FIRENDLY CARNIVAL OF MANTOVA COMES BACK!

Twenty-sixth edition: Segni d’infanzia, together with its audience, grows year after year thanks to events aimed at the new generations.

Segni d’infanzia has chosen 10 February to celebrate its ‘ideal’ New Year’s Eve, understood as the start of a new year of activities in the area (and beyond). The year 2024 will, in fact, see in the Segni d’infanzia calendar a series of initiatives and events that are different from the usual ones, realised on the territory for and together with its public of young people, families and schools: a public that is constantly evolving, growing and being born as it is the public of the new Generations.

The Mantuan association based in Valletta Valsecchi has been organising and curating – in collaboration with the Municipality of Mantua and the Fondazione Palazzo Te – the Carnival of Mantua at Palazzo Te for over a quarter of a century, an occasion dedicated in particular to the new generations. In 2024 the 26th edition of this festive event is scheduled to take place on Saturday 10 February, animating the evocative Julian villa from 3 p.m. onwards.

What makes 10 February even more special as a celebration to mark the start of the new year for the SEGNI community and public is the announcement, during the Mantua Carnival at Palazzo Te, of the new SEGNI 2024 symbolic animal:

a totemic figure that will accompany all the year’s events with a subtle fil rouge, and the long-awaited ‘Colour and (tell) the Animal Symbol’ competition with schools, culminating in SEGNI New Generations Festival (scheduled for next autumn).

In addition to the magic of Carnival, Segni d’infanzia offers citizens a second event on the same day – organised together with the Comune di Mantova – that focuses on the association’s main objective: to make the new generations protagonists. The appointment is Saturday 10 February at 6.30 p.m. with “Generare il Futuro al Bibiena” (Generating the Future at the Bibiena), which will see on stage the students of the Scuola secondaria di I grado G. Bertazzolo who in recent weeks have followed the theatre workshops organised by Segni d’infanzia together with internationally renowned artist-dancers.

Nabuzardan at Palazzo Te. The programme.

The traditional Carnival with the evocative name Nabuzardan, is an opportunity for citizens to experience the palace with the air and spirit with which it was created in the 16th century by Giulio Romano.

The public will be the protagonists of fun and fascinating activities, which will take place simultaneously in different rooms of the splendid villa of Palazzo Te, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday 10 February.

The staff of Segni d’infanzia, also made up of the fantastic Volunteers, will welcome the public as early as 14:45 at the main entrance to the museum, before kicking off the event at 15:00 in the Cortile D’Onore with the big announcement unveiling the identity of the new Animale Simbolo (symbolic animal) by Artistic Director Cristina Cazzola.

Following the announcement of the Animale Simbolo, surrounded by the marvellous setting of the Cortile d’Onore, the audience will be able to choose which activity to take part in, in the order they prefer, distributing themselves among the various spaces of Palazzo Te available: it will be necessary to follow the indications of the start time of the activities that will be placed on wooden totems containing the times of the various performances.

The newly discovered totem animal will be the protagonist of animated readings to be discovered inside the fascinating Grotta dell’appartamento del Giardino Segreto, (Grotto of the Secret Garden Apartment), curated by Daniele Tessaro.

While, under the Loggiato di Davide, there will be a workshop activity with a number of stations where the little ones can try their hand at elaborating their own version of the newly unveiled totem animal. The works from this workshop will be published in a ‘gallery’ available to teenagers and young adults who will take part in the competition to create the Animal that will become the visual of Festival SEGNI 2024 (Open Call Artists 2024 to be published on the evening of 10 February).

In Cortile D’Onore, the young collective LAN-DE-Sì will bring on stage the elegant Martha Landi and the rambunctious storyteller Boudu, for an artistic performance that will retrace the history of the oldest Symbolic Animals, evoking through its cauldron the shapes and colours of the animals of the past editions of the Festival, accompanying the spectators to get to know the 2024 Icon of Segni. La Via Invisibile – The Invisible Way – this is the name – will be full of discoveries and useful teachings for spectators young and old.

In the Sala dei Cavalli (Hall of Horses), sensational acrobatics among the Gonzaga frescoes await us with Milo Scotton, the founding artist of the ArteMakìa company with thirty years’ experience in the field of circus art, who will enchant the audience thanks to his mastery in the use of Circus Theatre instruments, but not only: body and movement will be united with music, opening up an unusual narrative dimension in traditional circus practice.

Framing the activities on offer is the ever-popular children’s make-up artist who will be present for the duration of the event, ready to satisfy the little ones’ requests and add a touch of colourful magic to make disguises and masks even more unique.

How to participate. Starting from today, Thursday 1 February, it will be possible to buy tickets at the ticket office at Segni d’infanzia in Via L.C. Volta 9/B, Valletta Valsecchi, Mantua. For further information the ticket office number is 0376-752882. It is advisable to purchase your ticket as soon as possible (€5 per person, from 18 months of age) as places are limited to allow better enjoyment of the various contents on offer.

The ticket office will be open until Friday 9 February – excluding Saturday and Sunday – from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and on Tuesday 6 February also in the afternoon, from 4 to 6 p.m.

Generating the Future at the Bibiena. The programme.

The entertainment opportunities for Carnival Day 2024 in Mantua multiply, including not only the event at Palazzo Te but also a theatrical performance as part of the project “Generare il Futuro: dalla scuola alla città” (Generating the Future: from School to City), in collaboration with the Comune di Mantova – Public Education. At the Teatro Bibiena, there will be an exceptional event featuring an international artist and the students of the “G. Bertazzolo” Secondary School.

On Saturday 10 February there will be the first event open to the city of this project, realised with the pupils of the 1^C, 3^D and a mixed afternoon group of the “G.Bertazzolo” School, who took part in the theatre workshop with Cristina Cazzola, Artistic Director of Segni d’infanzia, and Sara Zoia, actress, together with the international dancers of the Swiss Joshua Monten Dance Company. The course brings the children onto the stage of the Bibiena to fully live the theatrical experience, showing the audience the practices assimilated during the weekly meetings where they have imitated and assimilated together with the choreographer Joshua Monten the gestures and movements that the artists members of the company perform in the performance “Faking It” (in Italian “simulando”/”imitating”).

The Artistic Director’s words on the event at the Bibiena Theatre:

This event at the Bibiena Theatre is really a meeting of the boys with art, with an artist, but also a meeting of a community, because the evening event on Saturday 10 February is just one of the events they were involved in: first, the boys met us, the theatre operators, then they will meet Joshua Monten, and together, they will meet the community: not only parents and carers, but also spectators who will choose to come and see this event.

How to participate. The Teatro Bibiena will open its doors at 6.15 p.m. to welcome not only the families of the children protagonists, but also the entire public, who will be able to enter free of charge with compulsory booking through the Eventbrite.it platform, starting from Thursday 1 February, the day the ticket office opens. The event starts at 6.30 p.m. and will end at around 8 p.m.

Contact details:

0376/752882 – ticket office number (from 1 February) – biglietteria@segnidinfanzia.org