Daniel Hellmann
SOYA THE COW IN MANY FORMS AND STATES
A character for a plurality of artistic forms and audiences
A sex-positive, feminist and vegan drag creature, breaking the binaries of gender and species. Soya The Cow dances, sings and speaks for the liberation of everybody.
Through his actions, creations and experiments with the character of Soya The Cow, Daniel Hellmann has created a whole range of artistic and mediation forms on the animal condition and feminism.
Adaptable for an à la carte programme or in their entirety, here is an overview of these different proposals.
Below, we invite you to discover: SOYA THE COW - The character • DEAR HUMAN ANIMALS - The play • QUEER ANIMALS - Creation 2024 • TRY WALKING IN MY HOOVES - The art walk • THE CONCERTS - Soya in music • PLANET MOO - The exhibition • THE WORKSHOPS - Mediation & guided tours • TASTY FUTURE - Toward an ethical and sustainable gastronomy
SOYA THE COW - The character
Soya was born to inspire and challenge the status quo. She fights for animals and for all those whose voices are not heard. She has the will and determination to stir things up and scare those who want to cling to the toxic and violent systems of the past. Soya stands for love, freedom and climate justice for all living beings on this planet.
This new multifaceted body of work by Daniel Hellmann is a comprehensive examination of veganism, speciesism and feminism. In doing so, he walks the line between art and activism, utopia and parody.
QUEER ANIMALS - Creation 2024
Zurich-based artists Daniel Hellmann and Coco Schwarz take to the stage with their artistic alter egos Soya the Cow and Piano Prince.
Together, they tell surprising stories and songs about the diversity of sexualities, forms of love and life in the animal kingdom, with pleasure, humour and sensuality.
Set in a simple décor composed of an electric piano, a wheel of fortune and two richly costumed human-animal mythical creatures, the two artists invite us to dive into a fascinating world where gay sheep, lesbian albatrosses, bisexual snails, wolves dressed as grandmothers and transgender clownfish coexist. The result is a complex image of a nature that has freed itself from the constraints of heteronormative interpretation and transmission, making visible and celebrating life in all its variegated richness of forms.
DEAR HUMAN ANIMALS - The play
Soya The Cow – Dear Human Animals is a solo performance by Daniel Hellmann about the utopia of a new relationship between humans and other animals.
How do we bear something that is unbearable? How do we change something that we cannot change all by ourselves? And how do we become something that we are not?
Daniel Hellmann’s new solo performance is carried by the power and ridiculousness of his cow- shaped desire to change the world. Dear Human Animals uses the theatre space to create an experience that is both thought-provoking and transformative.
Try Walking In My Hooves - The art walk
Adorned in colourful costumes, Soya the Cow sings and dances in the city. An invitation to a philosophical and playful performance that changes our view of the world, the city and our relationship with animals.
THE CONCERTS - Soya in music
Soya The Cow proposes to give you a message in music! In several formats and with an adaptable duration, the concerts of Soya The Cow are declined as follows:
PIANO & VOICE
ELECTRO POP
CONCERT WITH VIDÉOPROJECTION
PLANET MOO - The exhibition
Planet Moo is the first exhibition of Soya The Cow. It presents a series of fashion photographs featuring clothing made from lettuce, radishes, grapes and other edible fruits and vegetables. This series was produced with photographer Tomas Eyzaguirre and costume designer Raki Fernandez and playfully questions the relationship between humans and non-humans, food and fashion, those who eat and those who are eaten. The confrontation between edible materials and the body of the cow-human hybrid creates hypnotically beautiful textures and political fashion statements about a throw-away consumerist society where our identities are constituted not only by what we wear but also by what we eat.
The exhibition will be complemented by floating manequins wearing Soya’s masks and costumes, as well as archival photographs from Soya’s eclectic artistic portfolio - from a mud bath with rescued pigs in an animal sanctuary to documentation photographs of a protest outside the German Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
THE WORKSHOPS - Mediation & guided tours
In addition to her stage performances, Soya The Cow also offers workshops, guided tours and mediation programs to raise awareness for animal rights and climate action.
These programs aim to deepen the reflections on human-animal-relationships and their impact on the planet and our health through interactive programs and encounters around the realities that are at the origin of Soya’s creation. These events, often organised as a parallel program to the performances, can also be set up by themselves and are intended to allow a different approach to the themes addressed. They should be developed specifically according to the organiser’s territory.
Exemples of mediations : vigil in front of a slaughterhouse (excursion), non-violent civil disobedience (workshop), How do you imagine the ideal relationship between humans and animals? (children's workshop), a field trip to a sanctuary for animals rescued from the slaughterhouse (guided tour), etc.
TASTY FUTURE - Towards an ethical and sustainable gastronomy
The gastronomy sector in theatres and cultural venues is one of the main causes of CO2 emissions and environmental destruction in the cultural industry. In 2022 and 2023, Daniel Hellmann is teaming up with Barbara Ellenberger and Klimakontor Basel. Together they will accompany 10 Swiss cultural institutions in a transformation process, where theatres and festivals change the menus of their restaurants, bars and canteens.
The project is funded by Migros Kulturprozent and aims to empower the cultural sector to take action on the climate and biodiversity crisis. By reducing or eliminating animal products from our food habits, we can make a massive contribution to climate and biodiversity protection and step into our footsteps as leaders in a broader social and cultural transformation.
This culinary reorientation can be integrated into a venue’s programme as a co-creative artistic process and can mobilise the entire team, as well as artists and the public. Soya The Cow can accompany this process with a concert, the Planet Moo exhibition or with round tables around food, ecology and climate justice.
REPRESENTATION DATES
On 6th July 2024 | Try Walking In My Hooves
Arten Festival, Hinteregg (CH)
On 28th June 2024 | Try Walking In My Hooves
Teatro Academico Gil Vicente, Coimbra (PT)
On 27th June 2024 | Try Walking In My Hooves
Teatro Academico Gil Vicente, Coimbra (PT)
On 20th June 2024 | Try Walking In My Hooves
Tanzhaus Zürich (CH)
On 10th & 11th June 2024 | Try Walking In My Hooves
Festival Performing Democracy, Fribourg (DE)
On 8th June 2024 | Performance
WUK, Vienne (AT)
On 5th & 6th June 2024 | Try Walking In My Hooves
WUK, Vienne (AT)
On 19th May 2024 | Performance
Capra Libera Tutti, Rome (IT)
On 11th May 2024 | Performance
Maastricht University (NL)
On 3rd May 2024 | Concert
Chiasso Letteraria, Festivale Internazionale Di Letteratura (CH)
On 2nd May 2024 | Try Walking In My Hooves
Tanzhaus Zürich (CH)
On 4th April 2024 | Try Walking In My Hooves
Tanzhaus Zürich (CH)
On 28th March 2024 | Performance
Printemps de la poésie, au Quartier Général de la Chaux-de-Fonds (CH)
On 22nd March 2024 | Soya the Cow
Tanzhaus Zürich (CH)
On 14th March 2024 | Concert
Les Abattoirs, FRAC of Toulouse (FR)
On 8th February 2024 | Try Walking In My Hooves
Tanzhaus Zürich (CH)
On 31st January 2024 | Dear Human Animals (ligth version)
Kleintheater Luzern (CH)
On 24th September 2023 | Dear Human Animals (ligth version)
Centre Culturel Suisse. On tour, with the Théâtre de la Cité Internationale in Paris, in partnership with the Festival Jerk Off (FR)
On 22nd and 23rd September 2023 | Try Walking In My Hooves
Centre Culturel Suisse. On tour, with the Théâtre de la Cité Internationale in Paris, in partnership with the Festival Jerk Off (FR)
On 20th June 2023 | Try Walking In My Hooves
Vögele Kultur Zentrum, Pfäffikon (CH)
On 1st & 2nd June 2023 | Try Walking In My
Hooves
Journées du Théâtre Suisse, Fribourg (CH)
On 27th May 2023 | Try Walking In My Hooves
Food Culture Days, Vevey (CH)
From 23rd May to 4th June 2023 | Vogue Végétale
Food Culture Days, Vevey (CH)
From 16th May to 17 September 2023 | Vogue Végétale
Vögele Kultur Zentrum, Pfäffikon (CH)
On 14th May 2023 | Try Walking In My Hooves
Zürich Tanzt, Zürich (CH)
On 13th May 2023 | Try Walking In My Hooves
Fête De La Danse, Geneve (CH)
On 15th & 16th February | Dear Human Animals (ligth version)
Festival Antigel of the Théâtre de Saint-Gervais, Geneva (CH)
On 14th February 2023 | Valentine's day dinner
Festival Antigel of the Théâtre de Saint-Gervais, Geneva (CH)
On 5th February 2023 | Try Walking In My Hooves & Planet Moo
Festival Antigel of the Théâtre de Saint-Gervais, Geneva (CH)
On 12th November 2022 | Dear Human Animals (light version)
M2act / La Grange, Lausanne (CH)
On 12th & 15th October | Cabaret performance
Fierce Festival, Birmingham (UK)
On 8th October 2022 | Excursion Try Walking In My Hooves
Bright Eyes Theatre Arts, Newcastle (UK)
On 23th September 2022 | Gala
Kunsthaus Zürich (CH)
On 4th September 2022 | Soya The Cow
Vegan Festival, gare centrale de Zürich (CH)
On 3th September 2022 | Protest
Mainz (DE)
On 1st September 2022 | Concert
Art Depot Mainz (DE)
On 16th July 2022 | Performance/concert
Animal Pride, Konstanz (DE) & Kreuzlingen (CH)
On 6th & 7th July 2022 | Excursion Try Walking In My Hooves
Festival de la Cité, Lausanne (CH)
On 29th June 2022 | Excursion
Friedhof Siehlfeld, Zürich (CH)
On 23th June 2022 | Tasty Future
Figura Festival, Baden (CH)
From 5th May to 4th June 2022
US-tour (Seattle, Kansas city, Houston, Los Angeles)
From 12th to 14th January 2022 | Workshop Dear Human Animals with a school class (6th grade)
Hausen (CH)
On 5th January 2022 | Protest performance in front of a sausage factory
Nurenberg (DE)
© Arne Grugel, Aline Bovard Rudaz, Tomas Eyzaguirre, Olivia Schenker