e-flux was invited to develop a special project for the Kopfbau during Art Basel 42, in 2011. The Kopfbau (head building) was the oldest building in the Messeplatz complex, slated for demolition later in the year. In response to this invitation, e-flux developed a constellation of projects situated somewhere between exhibitions of art and the concrete forms of sociality encountered in everyday life. Conceived as an independent universe with its own bar, hotel, shops, admissions, and so forth, this project functioned in parallel, and as the inverse to the neighboring art fair: operating during alternative hours and in surprising and often paradoxical ways, and ranging in scope from the educational to playfully predatory and mercantile. Its component parts drew on a wide circle of institutions, artists, curators, and writers who have been involved with various e-flux projects over the past several years and comprised seven discrete projects, including Agency of Unrealized Projects (AUP).

Agency of Unrealized Projects (AUP) was a temporary office exhibiting its growing archive of several hundred unrealized art projects, comprising contributions received through an open call, as well those originally collated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and presented in the book Unbuilt Roads (1993). AUP presents works by Judith Barry, Heman Chong, Jimmie Durham, Yona Friedman, Philippe Parreno and many others.