Loreto Amazonas, Peru.

Parkour - True Sport of Urban Jungle

Parkour is the art of movement through concrete and steel jungle of contemporary city. Parkour was created by David Belle and his longtime friend, Sebastien Foucan while growing up in a Paris suburb under influence Belle's father, Raymond, an elite ex-soldier and firefighter in the late 1980s. Combination of Asian martial arts, Zen philosophy and old school hip hop attitude, Parkour seems to be natural self expression for neglected and abandoned by mainstream society youth of housing projects. Ugly dehumanizing concrete architecture creates obstacles and constrains for natural movement, as poverty, lack of education and a very few opportunities for advancement in life limits personal growth. This evokes inner need to overcome them. Art of movement evolves into something more, ability to break out of social and class restrains, be free as person and become Traceur - athelete, but more so, an artist.

Oleg “Red” Krasnyanskiy from Dvinsk Clan. Daugavpils, Latvia.
You see world with different eyes when you become a Traceur: architecture, the path, and your way of life transforms. As a Traceur person fulfill human need to move and live efficiently. And that is what parkour is, art of moving through our environments as efficiently as possible, and ability to find perfect escape route.

Shuar habitat. Peruvian Amazon Basin.

HERZOG ABOUT HERZOG

Recommended reading.

Burden of Dreams

My trip to Peruvian Amazon Basin was inspired by Werner Herzog's movie "Fitcarraldo". Film about Irish rubber baron named Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald. He had a dream to build an opera house in Iquitos, Peru, then bring Caruso to perform there. To make money for his grandiose project he came up with idea to pull a steamship over a mountain from one river to another in order to reach a rubber tree field.
Many things changed since this film was shot in Iquitos and around, but the spirit of Fitcarraldo still present.



''Burden of Dreams'' documentary Produced by Les Blank, close-up of Werner Herzog at work in the Peruvian Amazon jungle.