🇪🇺 TEEN European Digital Community: Ginkgo of Memory and Future from city of Dnipro, Ukraine

Ginkgo of Memory and Future

I am a STEM-focused student from the Luhansk region, currently living in Dnipro, moving between the worlds of AI research and cultural storytelling. My path to theatre was accidental, discovered during a period of burnout. I found a sense of “home” in the work of the MUR project, whose music-and-drama exploration of the Executed Renaissance and Ukrainian identity gave shape to emotions I could not name. For me, theatre is not just entertainment — it is an ecosystem of memory, identity, and resistance. I’m here to connect with people who also see theatre as a source of meaning in a noisy world.

The soil / the need

When I first got closer to theatre, I wasn’t consciously looking for it. I was mentally exhausted — tired of school, expectations, and daily noise. My emotions felt messy and directionless. Theatre gave those feelings a home. It brought together history, identity, and raw emotion in a way that felt deeply personal and necessary.

The first seed

A performance you watched (online / via TikTok discovery).

Tell us about that first spark

It happened by accident while scrolling TikTok. I found MUR and their project Ty [Romantyka]. Tickets were impossible to get, so I watched through a screen — but the impact was still physical. The rhythm, voices, and history of the Ukrainian Executed Renaissance made theatre feel immediate and personal. It stopped being something “external” or “boring” and became part of my inner world.

Roots (people & experiences that shaped your path)

The creative collective MUR became my primary root system. Their work — and later Rebelia — showed me how theatre can connect the 1920s to today and make history feel alive. My personal background is another root: growing up in the Luhansk region, experiencing displacement, and witnessing war firsthand. Volunteer work at the “Unseen Force” exhibition also shaped me, teaching me that storytelling can be a form of defense and cultural protection.

The trunk (what keeps you in theatre)

What keeps me connected is the synthesis of music, rhythm, and intellectual depth. As someone who studies AI and mathematics, I appreciate the architecture of storytelling. Theatre works for me as emotional bioremediation — it clears mental exhaustion and replaces it with belonging and historical connection.

Branches (future / desire)

I see theatre as my emotional battery. Even if my career path remains in STEM and environmental engineering, theatre will stay the space that keeps me human. I hope to experience these performances live one day and continue using theatre as a bridge between my analytical side and my cultural soul.

If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be? Why?

A Ginkgo biloba — a “living fossil,” resilient across eras, with deep roots and a complex inner structure. For me, ginkgo represents a bridge between memory and the future: processing new challenges while staying rooted in history and identity.

Contact

Instagram: @mioni_jtm
Telegram: @mioni_jtm