The Barcelona-based designer has created a series of prints depicting some of the world’s best nightclubs. This image is of Berlin’s Berghain club, which Benito says is the most spectacular of all the venues he’s visited
Photograph: Pablo Benito
Benito started creating images of clubs after producing a print of Valencia’s Sala Barraca as a present for his mother – the long-running venue, formerly a country house, opened in 1965 and was the first club she ever visited. ‘You can’t compare Barraca with Berghain,’ says Benito. ‘Berghain is industrial, cold and dark while Barraca is rural, organic and in the middle of a rice field. But each club has its own essence’
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Sala Apolo in Barcelona, formerly a theatre and now one of the city’s major party spots
Also in Barcelona, Razzmatazz is a huge downtown venue with an industrial feel and five nightclubs in one building. ‘Unconsciously, I’ve always been interested in architecture,’ says Benito. ‘Both its spaces and the experiences one can have in there’
Benito prefers clubs that ‘adapt to their surroundings’, as opposed to the big purpose built venues that began to emerge in the late-90s. This print shows the recently closed Trouw club in Amsterdam, which was housed in a former newspaper printworks
Another nightclub to take advantage of a disused space is Tresor in Berlin, a techno club which used to occupy an old department store building.
London’s Fabric nightclub has also been illustrated by Benito. The 2,500-capacity venue in Farringdon, which features an infamous vibrating ‘bodysonic’ dancefloor, has hosted some of the biggest names in dance music over the last 15 years
It may be long closed, but New York’s Paradise Garage still features in Benito’s print series. The legendary nightclub, home to DJ Larry Levan, ran from 1977-87 and is considered among the most important venues in the history of dance music
With a windmill on the roof, Paris’ La Machine du Moulin Rouge – a nightclub next door to the iconic Moulin Rouge – has one of the most distinctive exteriors in Benito’s series
• Benito’s work is available to purchase at pebestore.com
