The House of Dorothy

Istituto Svizzero inaugurates its Milan programme with The House of Dorothy, the first solo exhibition in Italy by artist Vincent Grange (1997, born in Geneva, lives and works in Geneva). Grange presents an architectural installation designed for the spaces of Istituto Svizzero.

The title of the project draws inspiration from the expression “friends of Dorothy,” a code used by the gay community—and later the LGBTQIA+ community—in the United States starting in the 1950s to identify one another and evade persecution for homosexuality. The term was so widespread that in the 1980s the Naval Investigative Service launched a lengthy but ultimately futile investigation to locate Dorothy, believing her to be a real person.

At the intersection of spatial design and queer history, The House of Dorothy reconstructs the home of this imagined figure, whose name was likely a tribute to the character played by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz (1939). The various rooms narrate Dorothy’s life while simultaneously paying homage to a series of spaces historically significant to the LGBTQIA+ community. From legendary clubs to urban cruising spots, from historically significant homes to cinematic references, Dorothy’s house spans eras and geographies, gathering symbolic and real locations that have served as safe spaces for the queer community.

In the house, the memory of stories of oppression alternates and overlaps with the joyful experience of shared struggle. The project takes on a practice rooted in the history of LGBTQIA+ movements: reclaiming, with an emancipatory perspective, terms and narratives marked by a discriminatory genesis. The architecture, objects, and presences in the house interrogate both contemporary and past mythologies, bringing suppressed stories to the surface and strongly reaffirming the importance of not forgetting them, by reinhabiting them together.

The title also references the concept of “house” in ballroom culture, where chosen families, led by a “mother” or “father,” offer a sense of belonging and support to their “children,” who are often estranged from their biological families. The House of Dorothy thus becomes a space for the community, honoring queer genealogies past and present, and offering them shelter.

Curated by Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti

With the support of the Fonds cantonal d’art contemporain, DCS, Geneva