"Esenciais 20/50" is a thought and creation lab that revolves around art, society, and aging. The objective of this initiative, created by Cristina Pato and Xaime Fandiño in collaboration with Cunde and the Galician Office of Other Matters of the Movement, is for participants to reflect on and learn about stereotypes and the various ways of aging.

The initiative aims to create a space for dialogue, reflection, and creativity with people of different ages. With this intergenerational focus, its programming is born, centered around a series of interdisciplinary workshops that will bring together participants from different generations, professions, and life experiences, creating spaces of interaction around experiential artistic-educational processes.

The result of these workshops is reflected in the culminating event of "Esenciais 20/50": a scenic display that involves collaboration with a team of artists, including Marina Oural and Ugia Pedreira (Galician Office of Other Matters of the Movement), poet Eva Veiga, oral improviser and educator Alba María, improviser and composer Chefa Alonso, singer and composer Wöyza, and the intergenerational group Deteriorados. The protagonists of this work are the life stories and experiences of a group of people who are facing aging in different ways, creating a common space between the audience and the participants.

"Esenciais 20/50" emerges as a cultural response to the phenomenon of ageism, a term coined by American gerontologist Robert N. Butler, who defined it as "systematic discrimination against people because of their age," a form of discrimination at the social and institutional level that became more pronounced than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the year 2019, the newspaper El País published a report in which it described Ourense as "the epicenter of aging Europe." In that article, University of Vigo professor Alberto Vaquero was quoted as saying, "Ourense today has the demographic profiles of the EU in 2050." From this idea, the fact that the province is ahead in this historic demographic race, the name of this project, "Esenciais 20/50," was born. Its intention is to create a space for dialogue, reflection, and creation with a sector of society from which we still have much to learn.