My work is about resistance: understanding the forces that threaten freedom, confronting what they do, and finding the courage and collective strength to stand against them.
Fire
Artists on the front line
Witness against war’s shadow.
Fresh graves in Bucha, Ukraine — 10 September 2022. Photograph © Bréon Rydell.
Part III of Bréon Rydell’s Ukrainian Trilogy, ‘Vainglory’ confronts the lethal vanity of imperial power—the myths, medals and pageantry used to disguise conquest as destiny. Written and performed by Rydell, the poem strips war of its manufactured grandeur and exposes what remains: shattered lives, ruined cities and a leader’s delusional pursuit of historical greatness. Rooted in Russia’s assault on Ukraine but reaching beyond it, ‘Vainglory’ is both an indictment and a warning: tyranny may command spectacle and destruction, but it cannot turn brutality into glory or erase the resistance of those who refuse to surrender their freedom.
NEW FILM EDIT IN PRODUCTION
the old myths driving Bréon on
Bréon Rydell dropped out of school. No certificate, no safety net. He carved his own syllabus — a hidden flow: protest songs, folk, jazz and blues, even the music of Mahler under big skies, Paolozzi’s Chelsea studio, Jung and Campbell in the margins. Heidelberg opened its doors as if to say — yes, Bréon, what you stand for, counts.
At Heidelberg, the classroom turned into a sparring ground. Art, literature, philosophy, politics — nothing stayed abstract and untouchable. Rydell brought lived experience, and the Faculty knew it.
At the HCA Winter Seminar of February 2020, Professor Schloss described Rydell as “probably the most radical voice to teach in a German university since the seventies.”
Heidelberg appointed Rydell its First Expert in Residence, then a Visiting Fellow — proof that the hidden syllabus carried weight.
From there, his work expanded — poetry, theatre, music, film — the same hidden syllabus moving out into the world, carrying its fire.
Bréon Rydell with Prof. Dietmar Schloss, teaching at the HCA.
AN ARTIST OF WITNESS, WARNING AND TRANSFORMATION
Heidelberg didn’t just open its doors — it handed Bréon Rydell a desk at the Center for American Studies, the university’s hub for U.S. culture and politics. Rydell sketched a course — The American Dream in the 21st Century: Where Are We Now?
He co-taught with Professor Dietmar Schloss, who recognised in Rydell both vision and an original mind.
Schloss was the first academic to read Rydell’s early poems. He called them “quest and initiation literature,” and spoke of them as works of resonance.
In the classroom, Rydell would leave a moment of silence after each poem — Schloss said that helped students find their own voice. With a wry smile, he once remarked: “Many of the students talk about a revolution. I think Bréon Rydell would quite like that.”
FROM THE HEART OF UKRAINE
In early September 2022, Bréon Rydell made his way independently, via Poland, to Ukraine, where he would witness the devastation of the war for himself. Here was a country fighting for its survival and freedom.
Bréon Rydell, in Kyiv, with Armed Forces of Ukraine Liaison Officer, Sept 2022.
Correspondence Heidelberg, May 2023
Bréon —
I have watched your films on the war in Ukraine and am deeply moved. You show what art can do, placing your full confidence in it, and inspiring others to act.
Your public speaking is persuasive, as the Sky interview revealed. Witnessing the damage in Ukraine must have been difficult, but it is this lived experience that gives power and truth to your art.
As I said when we first met: we needed you at Heidelberg, and we need you in Germany today.
“You are the light, the spark, the spirit of inspiration. The world needs you, your words and vision, now more than ever.”
— Prof. Dietmar Schloss.
University of Heidelberg.
Fresh graves in Bucha, Ukraine — 10 September 2022. Photograph © Bréon Rydell.
Part I of Bréon Rydell’s Ukrainian Trilogy, Stand Up For Ukraine began as an open letter written in Cuba on 22 February 2022—two days before Russia’s full-scale invasion—and published on 10 March.
It is a powerful urgent defence of independence, democracy and resistance, and a rejection of silence and appeasement.
Written and performed by Bréon Rydell, with a soundscape by Ukrainian artist Anna Heller and award winning Scottish composer Ross Whyte, the film premiered online through the Finborough Theatre on 4 July 2022 and led to Bréon being invited to visit Ukraine later that year.
Irpin, Ukraine — 10 September 2022.
Photograph © Bréon Rydell.
Part of Bréon Rydell’s Ukrainian Trilogy, Freedom War is a visceral response to Ukraine’s struggle for survival—born from his journey into the country in September 2022 and his direct experience of the aftermath of Bucha and Irpin. Written and performed by Rydell, the film confronts the brutality of invasion while honouring the courage of a people who refuse to surrender their identity, their homeland or their future.