About

Daniel Hellmann is a dance and theatre artist, singer and performer. He studied philosophy at the University of Zurich, classical singing at HEMU Lausanne, and theatre/performance at HKB Bern. Since 2012, Hellmann has been creating interdisciplinary works in changing collaborations within his association 3art3. His pieces intricately weave together performance, language, music and movement. Hellmann’s work investigates the body, bodily relationships and desire, while questioning social norms related to sexuality, human rights and animal rights. His performances have received several awards, including the June Johnson Dance Prize (2015), and have been invited to major platforms such as Sélection Suisse en Avignon (2015, Traumboy), Swiss Selection Edinburgh (2019, Traumboy & Traumgirl), and Swiss Dance Days (2019, Requiem for a piece of meat).

Since 2018, Hellmann has been performing as his artistic alter ego Soya the Cow – a vegan drag cow. As Soya, he has created the solo Dear Human Animals (2020), the music album Purple Grass (2021), and several music videos. Through Soya the Cow, Hellmann increasingly explores photography and film. In 2022, he created the solo exhibition Planet Moo, shown at the Goethe Institutes in Seattle, Houston, Kansas City, and later in Geneva. The exhibition presents masks, costumes, photo and video works, and artistically explores the connections between food, agricultural systems and the climate crisis. In 2023, Hellmann’s work as Soya the Cow led to residencies in Taiwan and Brazil, and earned him a cultural award from the City of Zurich. Since 2024, Soya has also been the “House Cow” Artist-in-Residence at Tanzhaus Zurich. That same year, the video podcast series The Meltdown and the new music theatre piece Queere Tiere were premiered – the latter was shortlisted among the year’s outstanding theatre works by the Swiss Theatre Meeting.

From 2018 to 2021, Hellmann curated the performing arts programme of La Fête du Slip – an interdisciplinary festival on gender and sexualities in Lausanne. In July 2024, he co-conceived and co-curated the Arten Festival with Lisa Letnansky – a cross-species, cross-disciplinary weekend festival at Hof Narr animal sanctuary, featuring artworks created with, for, or alongside the animals living there – in the goat barn, between fruit trees or on the manure pile.