Unlike unrealized architectural projects, which are frequently exhibited and circulated, unrealized artworks tend to remain unnoticed or little known. But perhaps there is another form of artistic agency in the partial expression, the incomplete idea, the projection of a mere intention? Agency of Unrealized Projects (AUP) seeks to document and display these works. Whether censored, forgotten, postponed, impossible, or rejected, unrealized projects form a unique testament to the speculative power of non-action.

AUP follows the publication entitled “Unbuilt Roads: 107 Unrealized Projects,” collated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Guy Tortosa after several years of international research conducted in the late 1990s. Twenty years later, the Agency of Unrealized Projects was formed in collaboration with Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle, and an open call for unrealized projects was issued for its first public exhibition at ArtBasel in 2011. The open call will continue until all unrealized art projects are compiled.

Square Depression - Bruce Nauman

Untitled, modeled after the Leipzig Völkerschlachtdenkmal...  - Jenny Holzer

Broadway Musicals - Christian Marclay

Merci, Thank you, Danke: Les 2 sujets  - Thomas Hirschorn

Project 1 + Project 2 - Simryn Gill

Museum - Katharina Fritsch

Theater der Leere - Werner Ruhnau and Yves Klein

NON REALIZED PROJECTS - Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Chen H.V.O + G.T. - Bertrand Lavier

Der New-Babyloner - Constant

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
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Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W5415
20.10.2012
Process - Aglae Cortés
WWW
Process Landscape as the primary space entity appreciation. Abstracting the main elements like the horizon, the accumulation of matter. There are a play on the scale, and light elements to reveal landscapes that remain invisible in the everyday. The ...
Process Landscape as the primary space entity appreciation. Abstracting the main elements like the horizon, the accumulation of matter. There are a play on the scale, and light elements to reveal landscapes that remain invisible in the everyday. The ...
W5047
03.09.2012
Eulogy for Cheng Beiho  - Robert Linsley
WWW
Unfinished text of the late nineties, intended as one of a group of short stories as and about art. This one is an imagined future eulogy (dated maybe 2020) for an artist of the New China Avant-garde. Eulogy for Cheng Beiho I'll never forget my days ...
Unfinished text of the late nineties, intended as one of a group of short stories as and about art. This one is an imagined future eulogy (dated maybe 2020) for an artist of the New China Avant-garde. Eulogy for Cheng Beiho I'll never forget my days ...
W3912
20.05.2011
"Blue Plaque Portraits" [Working Title] - Jill Chong
WWW
Dear Resident of __________________________________, My name is Jill Chong and I am a second year student of fine art at Goldsmiths College. I am writing to you because I am currently doing a project based on English Heritage’s Blue Plaques scheme. M ...
Dear Resident of __________________________________, My name is Jill Chong and I am a second year student of fine art at Goldsmiths College. I am writing to you because I am currently doing a project based on English Heritage’s Blue Plaques scheme. M ...
W4703
26.05.2011
Sterling Crispin
WWW
My project involves a globally connected network of participants wearing EEG brain-computer interfaces. By displaying the average of thousands of live readings back to the participants their minds will slowly become closer to the average. Emerging brai ...
My project involves a globally connected network of participants wearing EEG brain-computer interfaces. By displaying the average of thousands of live readings back to the participants their minds will slowly become closer to the average. Emerging brai ...
W4606
25.05.2011
“LA MEMOIRE DU GESTE” - Maria Dundakova
WWW
MARIA DUNDAKOVA © PROJECT “LA MEMOIRE DU GESTE”- SOLSTICE Theme: Art and Environment. Landscape interacting between natural event and social event 1995 Luxembourg, European Capital of Culture, Valley of the Corn ...
MARIA DUNDAKOVA © PROJECT “LA MEMOIRE DU GESTE”- SOLSTICE Theme: Art and Environment. Landscape interacting between natural event and social event 1995 Luxembourg, European Capital of Culture, Valley of the Corn ...
W4806
07.08.2012
We Don't Even Know How to End This Misery - Kristin Tårnes
WWW
The text is the voiceover of a film I made about an unrealized collaborative project while I was an exchange student in Berlin in 2007. The two images are stills from the same film. Even though the original project was unrealized, a work about the unreali ...
The text is the voiceover of a film I made about an unrealized collaborative project while I was an exchange student in Berlin in 2007. The two images are stills from the same film. Even though the original project was unrealized, a work about the unreali ...
W3653
15.05.2011
Modular trajectories - Nikolay Zanev
WWW
Modules (15X15X15cm.) polymer, Black board The distinction of homomorphism displayed on lattice of vectors relation between groups, modules generated by one element as identity component for every one. Correspondence one by one in specifics trajectorie ...
Modules (15X15X15cm.) polymer, Black board The distinction of homomorphism displayed on lattice of vectors relation between groups, modules generated by one element as identity component for every one. Correspondence one by one in specifics trajectorie ...
W5036
01.09.2012
The Woodsquat Commemorative Pool Party - Gabriel Saloman
WWW
Gabriel Saloman The Woodsquat Commemorative Pool Party In the Fall of 2011, in response to call for artworks that addressed the site-specificity of Simon Fraser University's new campus in the heart of Vancouver's impoverished and turbulent Downtown ...
Gabriel Saloman The Woodsquat Commemorative Pool Party In the Fall of 2011, in response to call for artworks that addressed the site-specificity of Simon Fraser University's new campus in the heart of Vancouver's impoverished and turbulent Downtown ...
W5216
06.10.2012
Zeitseeing - Gisela Weimann
WWW
I am interested in the interplay between objects and sounds and movement in time and space. Word games and the change of classical musical formats with an ironic undertone are often part of my projects. ...
I am interested in the interplay between objects and sounds and movement in time and space. Word games and the change of classical musical formats with an ironic undertone are often part of my projects. ...
W4794
14.06.2011
The Biggest Painting - Joost van Oss
WWW
The biggest painting. ...
W4385
25.05.2011
un... - Bettina Bruder
WWW
un... by Bettina Bruder un... is an unrealized project from a series of experiments on the topic of ‘nothing’. un... got never realized until the call for submission of unrealized projects gave space to it. un... and ‘nothing’ are part of my u ...
un... by Bettina Bruder un... is an unrealized project from a series of experiments on the topic of ‘nothing’. un... got never realized until the call for submission of unrealized projects gave space to it. un... and ‘nothing’ are part of my u ...
W4874
09.08.2012
Kseniya
WWW
W5380
19.10.2012
Caution! Work in Progress - Geraldo Zamproni
WWW
Caution! Work in Progress Rack or plastic folding board with vibrant yellow tone is a warning message that awakens the immediate interest of the observer in conferring closely with looking at what is happening. ...
Caution! Work in Progress Rack or plastic folding board with vibrant yellow tone is a warning message that awakens the immediate interest of the observer in conferring closely with looking at what is happening. ...
W4259
24.05.2011
Why leave the shelter? - Arcady Kotler
WWW
Why leave the shelter? (The Tale of the construction of my shell) I don’t even remember when construction of the shelter started, but it happened somehow unnoticeably. When I was young it was nothing like a fortress, but just big opened space with e ...
Why leave the shelter? (The Tale of the construction of my shell) I don’t even remember when construction of the shelter started, but it happened somehow unnoticeably. When I was young it was nothing like a fortress, but just big opened space with e ...
W4122
23.05.2011
The Butterfly Tree - Chris Lipomi
WWW
There is a project which I have been thinking about and working on for quite some time now. Basically it is a living kinetic sculpture of a full sized tree (15/20 ft. tall), with living green tropical butterflies as the leaves. The tree itself, function ...
There is a project which I have been thinking about and working on for quite some time now. Basically it is a living kinetic sculpture of a full sized tree (15/20 ft. tall), with living green tropical butterflies as the leaves. The tree itself, function ...
W5299
17.10.2012
Difficult Pony - Sue Palmer
WWW
Difficult Pony. In 2007, I began to make a project about horses and women, ponies and girls. I love what horses are - I've always been curious about this equine human relationship. So I started with the 1960s toy gymkhana I played with as a child, watchi ...
Difficult Pony. In 2007, I began to make a project about horses and women, ponies and girls. I love what horses are - I've always been curious about this equine human relationship. So I started with the 1960s toy gymkhana I played with as a child, watchi ...
W4713
26.05.2011
CHROMA - spmb [Eduardo Aquino & Karen Shanski]
WWW
CHROMA [2011] was a proposal by spmb for a permanent public art project for the Mount Dennis Neighbourhood in Toronto, Canada. It is derived from the neighbourhood’s desire to signify one entrance into Mount Dennis through art, more specifically marking ...
CHROMA [2011] was a proposal by spmb for a permanent public art project for the Mount Dennis Neighbourhood in Toronto, Canada. It is derived from the neighbourhood’s desire to signify one entrance into Mount Dennis through art, more specifically marking ...
U9798
01.01.1972
Prima del 73 - Fabio Mauri
Unbuilt Roads
see my letter (eventually reasons why the work has not been realised) Anxiety Previous Publications (?) This thing is mentioned in "Fabio Mauri Opere e Azioni 1954-1994" Giorgio Mondadori Ed. Exisiting Documents (photos, drawings, models): ...
see my letter (eventually reasons why the work has not been realised) Anxiety Previous Publications (?) This thing is mentioned in "Fabio Mauri Opere e Azioni 1954-1994" Giorgio Mondadori Ed. Exisiting Documents (photos, drawings, models): ...
W5313
17.10.2012
“The Account” 2011 - Georgina Criddle
WWW
“The Account” 2011, is a detailed sketch and testimony of an unrealised installation project in a gas station in Berlin. The two pieces attempt to suspend the work in a potential space between fiction and reality. ...
“The Account” 2011, is a detailed sketch and testimony of an unrealised installation project in a gas station in Berlin. The two pieces attempt to suspend the work in a potential space between fiction and reality. ...
W4247
24.05.2011
Writing on the wall - Eric Fong
WWW
This project is inspired by the political, economic and cultural changes in China and Germany in 1989 and after. While East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania moved towards democracy in 1989, China killed pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Squ ...
This project is inspired by the political, economic and cultural changes in China and Germany in 1989 and after. While East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania moved towards democracy in 1989, China killed pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Squ ...
W4273
24.05.2011
Hector Zamora
WWW
W4693
26.05.2011
a flower every day - Nina Meledandri
WWW
a flower every day was a multi-media response to Marina Abramovic’s Museum of Modern Art retrospective and performance piece: The Artist Is Present (March 14-May 31 2010). It remains an unfinished project i often respond to the work of others, not ...
a flower every day was a multi-media response to Marina Abramovic’s Museum of Modern Art retrospective and performance piece: The Artist Is Present (March 14-May 31 2010). It remains an unfinished project i often respond to the work of others, not ...
W5208
04.10.2012
Lure - Noa Nahari
WWW
Noa Nahari Name: Lure Year: 2013/4 Neo Marxism claims the media are a tool to handle capitalistic power that wishes to exploit the working class to earn more money. For example, communication channels will produce programs that specifically attract a ...
Noa Nahari Name: Lure Year: 2013/4 Neo Marxism claims the media are a tool to handle capitalistic power that wishes to exploit the working class to earn more money. For example, communication channels will produce programs that specifically attract a ...
W3727
17.05.2011
Achtung” (Watch out!)  - Doris Koch
WWW
Since 1991, Doris Koch has been producing participatory projects in public spaces. In 2006, the project “Achtung” (Watch out!) was developed for the Stadtpark (city park) in Dessau in dialogue with the residents, and cancelled in Spring 2007. In the c ...
Since 1991, Doris Koch has been producing participatory projects in public spaces. In 2006, the project “Achtung” (Watch out!) was developed for the Stadtpark (city park) in Dessau in dialogue with the residents, and cancelled in Spring 2007. In the c ...
W4175
24.05.2011
BIYING ZHANG
WWW
As a young Chinese artist living in the United States, Zhang feels a strong sense of being a foreign person in this country especially after her marriage to a US citizen. In her artwork, Zhang explores the difference and displacement that she feels. ...
As a young Chinese artist living in the United States, Zhang feels a strong sense of being a foreign person in this country especially after her marriage to a US citizen. In her artwork, Zhang explores the difference and displacement that she feels. ...
W3621
14.05.2011
The 3 Muses of West Hollywood - Phil Tarley
WWW
Public Art For Street Installation in the City of West Hollywood, California ARTIST’S STATEMENT: THE 3 MUSES OF WEST HOLLYWOOD Who are we, the people of West Hollywood? Where do we come from? What do we do? As we live out our lives here ...
Public Art For Street Installation in the City of West Hollywood, California ARTIST’S STATEMENT: THE 3 MUSES OF WEST HOLLYWOOD Who are we, the people of West Hollywood? Where do we come from? What do we do? As we live out our lives here ...