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.

Der New-Babyloner - Constant

Memorial - Ilya Kabakov

Unrealized Projects - Jonas Meckas

Grand Concours International D'Architecture  - Sol Lewitt

WATERWORKS - Mona Hatoum

Eislandschaft - P. Fischli und D. Weiss

Passage - Richard Wentworth

PROPOSAL FOR SEATTLE ARTS COMMISSION, IN PUBLIC - Chris Burden

A FAIRLY TALL TOWER, 48,000 Miles High -  - Siah Armajani

Square Depression - Bruce Nauman

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
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Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W3881
19.05.2011
Ned James & the Swifts
WWW
Proposal: Part 1. Use the artists fee to place 1000 £1 bets on the races during St Patrick’s Day. Dressed as the embodiment of St Patrick placing the bets one after another will take all day and create a performance of endurance and intrigue. T ...
Proposal: Part 1. Use the artists fee to place 1000 £1 bets on the races during St Patrick’s Day. Dressed as the embodiment of St Patrick placing the bets one after another will take all day and create a performance of endurance and intrigue. T ...
W4792
13.06.2011
No Flag Long Enough - Santiago Pinyol
WWW
NO FLAG LONG ENOUGH Flags are not meant to touch the floor, everybody knows that. Flags are meant to be weaved, to be watched, to preside. The intervention proposed to bring the flags down from their vertical order into the horizontal one, connecti ...
NO FLAG LONG ENOUGH Flags are not meant to touch the floor, everybody knows that. Flags are meant to be weaved, to be watched, to preside. The intervention proposed to bring the flags down from their vertical order into the horizontal one, connecti ...
W5273
14.10.2012
Cut Here - Bryndís Björnsdóttir
WWW
Cut Here The work proposed for Art Needs Space is a simple drawing of a kite. The kite is digitally drawn as well as hand drawn but the hand drawn elements can be seen in the “cut here” lines of the kite figure. The two-dimensional poster is glued o ...
Cut Here The work proposed for Art Needs Space is a simple drawing of a kite. The kite is digitally drawn as well as hand drawn but the hand drawn elements can be seen in the “cut here” lines of the kite figure. The two-dimensional poster is glued o ...
W4182
24.05.2011
“Disposable Mine Detector”  - Momoyo Torimitsu
WWW
“Disposable Mine Detector” EXPLORING HOW TO CREATE AN ECONOMIC EQUIVALENCE BETWEEN MANUFACTURING LAND MINES AND MANUFACTURING MINE DETECTORS When art projects take place in public, and involve society outside of the white cube, the final ar ...
“Disposable Mine Detector” EXPLORING HOW TO CREATE AN ECONOMIC EQUIVALENCE BETWEEN MANUFACTURING LAND MINES AND MANUFACTURING MINE DETECTORS When art projects take place in public, and involve society outside of the white cube, the final ar ...
W4206
24.05.2011
AU Suivant - Piki en Liesbet Verschueren
WWW
Liesbet & Piki would like to propose some video installations which were never shown and/or not shown in a way they were intented to, namely in context of architectural spaces. Piki & Liesbets’ video projects start from the playful observation of lif ...
Liesbet & Piki would like to propose some video installations which were never shown and/or not shown in a way they were intented to, namely in context of architectural spaces. Piki & Liesbets’ video projects start from the playful observation of lif ...
U9673
01.05.1981
WATERWORKS - Mona Hatoum
Unbuilt Roads
Extracts from an unpublished interview with Michael Archer for Phaidon press: ...Around the same period I made a proposal for the New Contemporaries exhibition which was going to be held at the ICA. In those days the toilets were on either side of the ...
Extracts from an unpublished interview with Michael Archer for Phaidon press: ...Around the same period I made a proposal for the New Contemporaries exhibition which was going to be held at the ICA. In those days the toilets were on either side of the ...
W3654
15.05.2011
nigal goodship
WWW
They say, art no longer produces beauty, she produces meaning. I say, one cannot paint a picture or make an image of a woman and not deal with the concept of beauty. Marlene Dumas Assignment 5fp001 Contemporary photographic practice, The Venus project ...
They say, art no longer produces beauty, she produces meaning. I say, one cannot paint a picture or make an image of a woman and not deal with the concept of beauty. Marlene Dumas Assignment 5fp001 Contemporary photographic practice, The Venus project ...
W4135
23.05.2011
Naama Tsabar
WWW
Originaly Proposed b y Naama Tsabar for Emdash Award, Frieze art fair. This project will begin with a silent video-clip that will be sent to a musician. The video itself will be my visual reaction/interpretation to the musicians music, and will serve ...
Originaly Proposed b y Naama Tsabar for Emdash Award, Frieze art fair. This project will begin with a silent video-clip that will be sent to a musician. The video itself will be my visual reaction/interpretation to the musicians music, and will serve ...
W5114
17.09.2012
Marlaina Eldey
WWW
Sorry for placing my picture in the Text Document place, i have been trying to delete it and it will not respond..... The first image is one I never did finish. It began as a doodle that I created in the midst of a deep depression. I call the doodle, ...
Sorry for placing my picture in the Text Document place, i have been trying to delete it and it will not respond..... The first image is one I never did finish. It began as a doodle that I created in the midst of a deep depression. I call the doodle, ...
W4185
24.05.2011
The Circumference is Everywhere - Daniel R Small
WWW
The Circumference is Everywhere, 2011 100 miles Northeast of Los Angeles in the Mojave Desert lies a city abandoned in advance of itself, a ruin that is an aerial monument to misguided optimism that was conceived of by Nat Mendelsohn and intended to r ...
The Circumference is Everywhere, 2011 100 miles Northeast of Los Angeles in the Mojave Desert lies a city abandoned in advance of itself, a ruin that is an aerial monument to misguided optimism that was conceived of by Nat Mendelsohn and intended to r ...
W4728
26.05.2011
Unfinished projects of avoidance - Andrew Spackman
WWW
Title: Unfinished projects of avoidance Image:P1020494.JPG 100 clocks/100 batteries in polystyrene packaging. Image: P1020451.JPG Unfinished turntable Statement Objects of deliberate ‘avoidance’. Counter intuitive processes are employe ...
Title: Unfinished projects of avoidance Image:P1020494.JPG 100 clocks/100 batteries in polystyrene packaging. Image: P1020451.JPG Unfinished turntable Statement Objects of deliberate ‘avoidance’. Counter intuitive processes are employe ...
W5263
13.10.2012
Brick Rushnik - Maria Gonchar
WWW
Rushnik or Rushnyk- Ukrainian embroidered decorative towel. In ancient times, the towel, embroidered with the relevant patterns, symbols, has been an inherent part of many ceremonies. For centuries it has the importance of figurative-symbolic significanc ...
Rushnik or Rushnyk- Ukrainian embroidered decorative towel. In ancient times, the towel, embroidered with the relevant patterns, symbols, has been an inherent part of many ceremonies. For centuries it has the importance of figurative-symbolic significanc ...
W5340
18.10.2012
Didaskalia - Helly Mizrai
WWW
"Didaskalia" is a site-specific installation. Didaskalia divided into two acts, The two acts are almost similar, in Didaskalia the work creates repetitions by multiplying the three first spaces twice. About the work In the suggested work I contin ...
"Didaskalia" is a site-specific installation. Didaskalia divided into two acts, The two acts are almost similar, in Didaskalia the work creates repetitions by multiplying the three first spaces twice. About the work In the suggested work I contin ...
W3580
13.05.2011
Diary - Brocken Column, 1989 - Dan Mihaltianu
WWW
Brocken Column belongs to a series of works produced in the late 80s with the generic title "Diary", drawings, lithographs, artist books and installations, using as symbols the initials of the week days ...
Brocken Column belongs to a series of works produced in the late 80s with the generic title "Diary", drawings, lithographs, artist books and installations, using as symbols the initials of the week days ...
W4833
07.08.2012
A Room for Persephone - Noa P. Kaplan
WWW
A Room for Persephone Complex beauty can be located even in spaces of hopelessness. In a dark room, you would encounter a hollow sphere with a round opening large enough to fit through. Inside, you would find soft white walls and four seed-like ...
A Room for Persephone Complex beauty can be located even in spaces of hopelessness. In a dark room, you would encounter a hollow sphere with a round opening large enough to fit through. Inside, you would find soft white walls and four seed-like ...
W5023
31.08.2012
Rooted - John Gayer
WWW
ROOTED This unrealised project primarily exists in the imagination. It involves an extended performance that demands stasis and proposes an evolutionary shift. This shift could take centuries to happen. The idea, in part, derives from a time when I produ ...
ROOTED This unrealised project primarily exists in the imagination. It involves an extended performance that demands stasis and proposes an evolutionary shift. This shift could take centuries to happen. The idea, in part, derives from a time when I produ ...
W4957
20.08.2012
Pelican Bay maximum-security glass prison - Eugene Soler
WWW
California’s Pelican Bay maximum security prison is more than 150% over capacity with a high number of inmates re-offending after released. Located within a nearby clearing of forest, the proposal is to create a facility for inmate’s rehabilitation by ...
California’s Pelican Bay maximum security prison is more than 150% over capacity with a high number of inmates re-offending after released. Located within a nearby clearing of forest, the proposal is to create a facility for inmate’s rehabilitation by ...
W4645
25.05.2011
Deployable Detention Center: Porta-Prison - Jenny Polak
WWW
Deployable Detention Center: Porta-Prison. A proposal by Jenny Polak 500 ch Porta-Prison is a fictional design proposal: a deployable detention center conceived to bring seasonal labour to farms. The project includes an interactive promotional website ...
Deployable Detention Center: Porta-Prison. A proposal by Jenny Polak 500 ch Porta-Prison is a fictional design proposal: a deployable detention center conceived to bring seasonal labour to farms. The project includes an interactive promotional website ...
W4549
25.05.2011
Auto da fe.  - Paul Murnaghan
WWW
Auto da fe. Shortly before the demolition of Sean Tracey House AKA Pallas Heights, the keys to the gallery and studios will be handed over to Paul Murnaghan. Murnaghan has agreed with Pallas Heights’ curators, Mark Cullen and Brian Duggan, that he wil ...
Auto da fe. Shortly before the demolition of Sean Tracey House AKA Pallas Heights, the keys to the gallery and studios will be handed over to Paul Murnaghan. Murnaghan has agreed with Pallas Heights’ curators, Mark Cullen and Brian Duggan, that he wil ...
W4710
26.05.2011
Instructions to finding a future - Batya F. Kuncman
WWW
Instructions to finding a future Previously known as “Contemporary stream of consciousness: Stored data of identity as a work in progress” this project is an ongoing investigation into my individual identity as it relates to collective identity. Cul ...
Instructions to finding a future Previously known as “Contemporary stream of consciousness: Stored data of identity as a work in progress” this project is an ongoing investigation into my individual identity as it relates to collective identity. Cul ...
W3608
13.05.2011
Jenny E. Balisle
WWW
My art begins with a mark or line inspired by patterns found in natural or manmade environments. My pen and ink drawings explore repetitions of line and organic forms, investigating the simplicity and complexity of gestures, marks, lines, and textures. ...
My art begins with a mark or line inspired by patterns found in natural or manmade environments. My pen and ink drawings explore repetitions of line and organic forms, investigating the simplicity and complexity of gestures, marks, lines, and textures. ...
W5027
31.08.2012
The Reverse Grand Tour - Valerio Rocco Orlando
WWW
The Reverse Grand Tour 2012 Inspired by the Grand Tour and the experiments conducted by the philosopher of science Bruno Latour, Valerio Rocco Orlando analyzes how context and relationships influence an artist’s practice in Rome today. In order to ...
The Reverse Grand Tour 2012 Inspired by the Grand Tour and the experiments conducted by the philosopher of science Bruno Latour, Valerio Rocco Orlando analyzes how context and relationships influence an artist’s practice in Rome today. In order to ...
W5409
20.10.2012
Sharon Bareket
WWW
A series of photographic works made during 2012 by photographer Sharon Bareket, dealing with the invasion of a military dimension into the civilian, private dimension. The images evoke themes that are local and universal at the same time, and depict a ...
A series of photographic works made during 2012 by photographer Sharon Bareket, dealing with the invasion of a military dimension into the civilian, private dimension. The images evoke themes that are local and universal at the same time, and depict a ...
W4573
25.05.2011
Emily Puthoff
WWW
W4100
23.05.2011
YOU[bahn]TUBE  - GH Hovagimyan
WWW
When we go down into the subway there is always in the back of our minds a series of film clips playing. These are subway scenes from movies we have seen during the course of our lives. This is part of a larger media context, a media collective unconsciou ...
When we go down into the subway there is always in the back of our minds a series of film clips playing. These are subway scenes from movies we have seen during the course of our lives. This is part of a larger media context, a media collective unconsciou ...
W5408
20.10.2012
MOTHERS _ project - Tiziana Pers
WWW
MOTHERS _ project by Tiziana Pers ‘Mothers’ is a project composed by a series of photographs and an installation. During the ninth month of my pregnancy, one of the last days, I went into the wood, and I started painting my belly with three. ...
MOTHERS _ project by Tiziana Pers ‘Mothers’ is a project composed by a series of photographs and an installation. During the ninth month of my pregnancy, one of the last days, I went into the wood, and I started painting my belly with three. ...