“The happy cow grazing in a mountain pasture, a symbol of Swiss tourism par excellence, is a decoy. In our country, 83 million animals are killed each year following having parked them in sinister buildings and having force-fed them with wheat, corn and soy imported from Brazil”, according to figures provided by Swissveg, the Swiss association of vegetarians. “And do you know that 80% of the world’s agricultural areas are exploited in order to feed livestock? Isn’t that madness?”
Daniel Hellmann may be wearing extravagant outfits (without animal fibres) and dodgy (vegan) make-up when he slips into the skin of Soya the cow, a drag-queen cow who, last Sunday, wandered the streets of Geneva , featured at the festival Antifreeze. Nevertheless: this Zurich-Berlin activist knows his subject like the back of his hand. Or rather on the tips of the hooves.
a burlesque show
These clogs, precisely, we can admire them at Planet Moo, an exhibition retracing the artist’s commitment in costumes and photos. Which will still be on the bill Dear Human Animals, kind of game show, these February 15 and 16, following eat with your heart, on the 14th, a 100% vegan Valentine’s Day meal. All one “Cow love!”therefore, to be discovered at the Théâtre Saint-Gervais, co-producer of the operation.
Lausanne residents already know Soya the cow. The 2-meter-high cow strolled between Platform 10 and the Bessières bridge during the Festival de la Cité in Lausanne last summer. The purpose of this Try walking in my Hooves, a militant walk? Walk the streets of a city by putting yourself in the shoes of animals encountered along the way or by questioning our fantasies regarding them. Soya the cow was still at La Grange, a university scene in Dorigny, in November. This time, she offered Dear Human Animalsa game that consists of touching your audience by making them laugh.
“In this burlesque show that I take over in Saint-Gervais, I give myself twenty minutes to turn people into vegans, otherwise I drink a bottle of milk!” smiles Daniel Hellmann when we meet him last Sunday, just before his trip to Geneva. The one who passed his master’s degree in lyrical singer, baritone-bass, at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne (HEMU) before joining the Haute Ecole des arts de Berne, has not always campaigned for animal rights.
It was first his defense of the sex trades that made him known. In Full Service, created in 2014 and given for four years from Japan to the United States, it provided all the services people wanted, to make a sandwich, a tax declaration or… a blowjob, and set the price according to the importance of the task. Bold. “Yes, but in the end, I was asked little for sexual services.”
A particularly interesting moment? “In Manila, I had fun reversing the trend. Me, a young Swiss, I delivered, for 3 francs, an erotic massage to an old Filipino gentleman, whereas usually, it is rather the opposite!
Daniel defends the sex trades, because “these professions are socially discredited while they bring comfort, while many toxic trades, in speculation or breeding, are them, valued while they harm humanity “.
The singer and performer later extended his fight to animals for “simple consistency.” “Before music, I studied ethics in philosophy at the University of Zurich. All species deserve respect. We talk a lot regarding consent in interpersonal relationships, which is wonderful. But do we ask a pig for its consent before force-feeding and slaughtering it? Why are there double standards?
As we can see, the Darwinian vision of the world is not to Daniel Hellmann’s taste. The activist who speaks four languages does not believe in the processes of natural selection and vital competition. “It is enough to note the harm that the hyperproduction of meat does to the planet and therefore to ourselves, by extension. Animal exploitation rots our soils and our air, precipitating global warming which will mark our loss”, insists the artist before putting on his monumental horns for the parade.
Appropriation animale
By the way, do vegan activists welcome Soya the cow, this animal appropriation? “Not all of them, indeed. I’ve had critics rightly criticize me for using the image of a cow without knowing how she feels. This is why, during confinement, I joined for seven months yard fool, a Zurich farm, animal shelter. For example, I made a great friendship with Levi, a turkey rescued from the slaughterhouse and suffocated to death by his chest”, visibly “boosted by selective breeding for commercial needs”.
And if Daniel chose glitter to defend this cause, it’s because he has always been “creative, different”. “As a child, I grew up in a liberal Jewish family. My father, a trainer in the field of early childhood and my mother, a psychotherapist, were both very open. On the other hand, as we lived in Schwamendingen, a very popular district of Zurich, I lived a nightmare at school because of my homosexuality and my taste for glamour.
In the end, this character, lively and scintillating, embodies everything except bovine phlegm. “[Rires.] It’s true, in life, I’m more of a chicken than a cow. Soya the cow, I chose it in response to the false imagery of Switzerland and its hypocrisy.
Profile
1985 Born in Zurich, September 27.
1991 Classical children’s choir.
2011 Master of singing at the Haute Ecole de Musique, Lausanne.
2014 Creation of “Full Service”, a show on sex work.
2017 Creation of Soya the cow, his drag-queen cow.
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