Helena Estrela ~ Keywords: politics of the soil, rural communities, interspecies relationships, imaginative play, embodied knowledge, education as liberation, decentralized culture/cultural accessibility, critical practices

Helena Estrela is an artist, educator, and cultural organizer living and working in the interior of Portugal, in a small village between two mountains. She spent the last years pushing her fingers into the dirt, talking to plants, and writing about it with muddy hands. 

Her practice spans multiple media, including writing, sculpture, drawing, film, sound, and printed formats. Her latest work is grounded in conversations with her neighbours and reflects on agricultural knowledge and land politics through the failures and joys of growing cabbages.

Helena, together with Christopher Ruiz and Cristiana Cruz Forte, co-runs Casa Estrela, and non-profit cultural organization and residency space dedicated to cooperative learning and cultural accessibility in rural and low-density areas. Nowadays, she is a weaver and gardener apprentice, and is editing a recipe book with the work of her students.

Helena holds a degree in film from the Lisbon Theatre and Film School, a master's in filmmaking from Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, and an MA in Art Praxis from the Dutch Art Institute. Her work has been featured at Galeria Zé dos Bois, Comos, Dínamo, Appleton, and film festivals such as Viennale, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, and FICUNAM. 

*Learn more about Helena Estrela's 20 minute performance Fly concert for a cow memorial for CHOREIA ~ DAI's Aeroponic Acts 2025 at Centrale Fies in Italy. 

*Learn more about Helena Estrela's written MA thesis (DAI, 2025): Slides over the cabbages: Margins for action in playing together

*During their journey with DAI, Helena Estrela made significant contributions to: COOP SUMMIT 2024 ~ …And Then I Opened My Mouth as well as COOP Summit 2025 ~ to live by ear, and the eye will follow

*Helena Estrela was an esteemed 2024-2025 member of the DAI's COUNCIL 

*Follow Helena's 'Life after DAI' via Instagram