A miniature version of a former Clevedon nightclub will be part of an exhibition more than 16 years after its closure.
Following its 1990s heyday Blitz Nightclub, based at The Royal Pier Hotel, closed its doors for the final time in 2001 before the building was turned into luxury apartments in 2013.
But a Clevedon artist will celebrate its glory days with Back2Blitz – a three-week exhibition packed with pictures, film and music.
Alessandra Sormani is transforming a disused cellar under her family’s ice cream parlour, Aldo’s Forte Ice Cream, into the Sormani Vella studio and hopes its first exhibition will help people ‘re-live memories’.
She said: “The space had been unused for a long time, and I had the idea to renovate it for my own kind of branch of the family business.
“I’m an artist and photographer and thought the cellar would be a great space for both a studio for me to work, and which I can rent to other photographers working in Clevedon.
“In addition to the studio, I decided to use part of the space as a small, non-commercial gallery for contemporary art, something which I thought was lacking in Clevedon.
“I named the space Sormani Vella, from my dad’s surname and my mum’s maiden name.
“In 2013 I saw building works start and it made me think about the times I spent there as a teenager and how that part of local history was going to disappear.
“So I started to source material using social media to gather people’s memories of the club – I wanted to get a better idea of exactly how it looked, felt, smelled and sounded.
“Alongside photos I took of the club’s interior, just before the building was gutted, I am recreating a tiny version
of the nightclub as an i
nstallation with music playlists put together by Andy Potter and Will Soapy Somers – DJs who used to work in Blitz back in
the 1990s.
“I hope people who
remember Blitz will drop by the gallery and the work will help them relive their memories.”
The club’s original sign will be on show while a 2001 Calling The Shots film called Townies V Jitters will be screened.
Back2Blitz will open at 11 The Beach at 6pm on Saturday and will run until October 8.
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