Mardin is a mystic place where middle eastern civilisations intersect. English parkour artist Ryan Doyle conquered this city in his own peaceful but powerful way.
Mardin, in the south-east of Turkey, has unique architecture which enables people to live in extremely hot weather and still socialise with one another. This is made possible by narrow streets and closly built houses. Liverpudlian parkour athlete Ryan Doyle discovered the unification of cultures and neighbourhood relations in this historical atmosphere during Red Bull Time Run in July 2010.
Ryan absorbed the 6,000-year-old mystical city into his mind and reflected it as an artist with his body. The project entailed detailed challenges which include perception and understanding of the ancient environment in a short amount of time. Mardin is an old city of many different faiths and is surrounded by churches, mosques and monasteries like Deyrul Zafran, located on the slope of a hill looking down south over the Syrian plains.
Thus, the ancient town became a natural parkour in a place encircled by old-style carved stone houses, reflecting a mixture of Assyrian, Urartian, Hellenistic, Persian, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman period architecture.
Ryan Doyle, who won English Tricking Championships three times (in '06, '07 and '09) was crowned Freerunning World Champion 2007 in Vienna, at the first official competition in the sport, Red Bull Art of Motion. He broke his leg in the process and had to go into recovery for two years. 2009 was the year of his comeback.
At school, Ryan was never the athletic type. In fact when it came to having a kickabout at football in the playground, he was always stuck in goal. So Ryan channeled his energy into martial arts, achieving a black belt in Kuk-Sool-Won and later discovered free running and parkour.
He was a natural, and found he could turn any apparent weakness to his advantage. For example, he claims his poor eyesight is actually an advantage because if he could actually see the true height of a jump he was on, he’d probably chicken out!
Ryan: “Don’t live in fear of making mistakes, accept it as being part of life’s plan for you, so learn from it and do it right.”
Photos © Lukasz Nazdraczew / Red Bull Content Pool
More Ryan Doyle Projects?
Ryan over the white roofs of Santorini, Greece
Ryan in the jungles of Xilitla, Mexico
Ryan Doyle Interview
Comments
Add a comment