LETTER FROM SAO PAULO

"For us, it's not the icing on the cake... but under the cake!" Benjamin Seroussi, 44, the buoyant French director of Casa do Povo ("people's house"), is not short of witty phrases when it comes to the treasure housed in the basements of his cultural institution, planted right in the heart of São Paulo. Past the building's industrial-modernist entrance, a metal door and a flight of steps lead down to the holy of holies, called "TAIB:" the Brazilian Israelite Art Theatre.

Damp floors, rusty drains, decrepit absinthe-green walls and worn burgundy-red armchairs: The place has lost in splendor what it has gained in mystery, reminiscent of sets by directors such as Jim Jarmusch or Leos Carax. Inaugurated in 1960, the TAIB was in its heyday one of São Paulo's cultural hotspots, a bastion of Yiddish and protest theater. It has been derelict for over 20 years.

But things could soon change. Casa do Povo recently launched a major fundraising campaign to reopen its beautiful theater. "This is about reclaiming the history of an institution, a community, a neighborhood and a city. The decline of a cultural space is a slow process of oblivion. Its reappropriation marks a moment of rediscovery," enthused Seroussi.

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