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.

Social Resource Project For the Munich Olympics - Stephen Willats

The pyramids...to be seen to be believed - Jonathan Monk

"Ileana, I love you" - Maurizo Cattelan

The World is a Theater and we each have a role - Louise Bourgeois

654 THINGS from The United States - Edward Ruscha

Broadway Musicals - Christian Marclay

Messages to the Public - Nancy Spero

City Hall Tower Night Ilumination - Krysztof Wodiczko

The lmprobable Flow - Larry Bell

Projets non réalisés: - Daniel Buren

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
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Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W5484
22.10.2012
Missile images - Paul Nulty
WWW
To propose to make a series of photographs made at scheduled demonstrations at the Saab Borfors systems field site in Karlskoga Sweden. Images are to show ground to air missiles such as the RBS 70 and recent RBS 70NG being demonstrated and tested in a ...
To propose to make a series of photographs made at scheduled demonstrations at the Saab Borfors systems field site in Karlskoga Sweden. Images are to show ground to air missiles such as the RBS 70 and recent RBS 70NG being demonstrated and tested in a ...
W4663
25.05.2011
Arbeit Macht Nicht Frei (Work doens’t bring freedom)  - DARR TAH LEI
WWW
Arbeit Macht Nicht Frei (Work doens’t bring freedom) Project for an installation 4 drawings hanged on 4 walls, masses of heavy chains hanging from the ceiling. Area of room needed - minimum 40 mt2 This artwork happens with the intention to emphasize t ...
Arbeit Macht Nicht Frei (Work doens’t bring freedom) Project for an installation 4 drawings hanged on 4 walls, masses of heavy chains hanging from the ceiling. Area of room needed - minimum 40 mt2 This artwork happens with the intention to emphasize t ...
W4028
22.05.2011
The width of a grin - Matthew Geller
WWW
Proposal for a temporary public artwork on West San Fernando Street under the Highway 87 overpass and over the Guadalupe River, San Jose, CA It takes about 68 seconds to cross under Highway 87 and over the Guadalupe River while walking on West San Fern ...
Proposal for a temporary public artwork on West San Fernando Street under the Highway 87 overpass and over the Guadalupe River, San Jose, CA It takes about 68 seconds to cross under Highway 87 and over the Guadalupe River while walking on West San Fern ...
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 ...
W3669
15.05.2011
Music For Distances - Carla Cisno
WWW
Proposal for Historisches Museum Baden (Switzerland) within DAS OHR DER ZEIT- Projektwettbewerb-Klangintervention im Historisches Museum Baden. Specifically designed for the spaces of Landvogteischloss, Music For Distances is a particular chordal-ram ...
Proposal for Historisches Museum Baden (Switzerland) within DAS OHR DER ZEIT- Projektwettbewerb-Klangintervention im Historisches Museum Baden. Specifically designed for the spaces of Landvogteischloss, Music For Distances is a particular chordal-ram ...
U9660
01.01.1995
Double Exposure 1995-6  - Dan Graham
Unbuilt Roads
This pavilion is enterable through a sliding 2-way mirror door in one side, is sited in a landscape with some trees, a large visible vista. The 4m x 4m x 4m pavilion has two 2-way mirror sides. The third side is a cibachrome transparency which shows th ...
This pavilion is enterable through a sliding 2-way mirror door in one side, is sited in a landscape with some trees, a large visible vista. The 4m x 4m x 4m pavilion has two 2-way mirror sides. The third side is a cibachrome transparency which shows th ...
W4520
25.05.2011
take charge of your life.  - Joan Vicent Marí Domenech
WWW
The unrealized project that I present is called: take charge of your life. These is what I was doing during my studies in fine arts Erasmus in Athens. Knowing myself. Began with a series of banners carried out haphazardly. The two images presen ...
The unrealized project that I present is called: take charge of your life. These is what I was doing during my studies in fine arts Erasmus in Athens. Knowing myself. Began with a series of banners carried out haphazardly. The two images presen ...
W4617
25.05.2011
Tia-Simone Gardner
WWW
The project that I am working on is a more involved video project, developed out of an installation of stills, that will re-narrate, and re-edit, Ousmane Sembene's 1966 film 'La noire de.' I began the ground work for this project over a year ago while thi ...
The project that I am working on is a more involved video project, developed out of an installation of stills, that will re-narrate, and re-edit, Ousmane Sembene's 1966 film 'La noire de.' I began the ground work for this project over a year ago while thi ...
W5337
18.10.2012
how to recall what never happened
WWW
The idea stem from Lis’81 – The International Drawing Biennale of Lisbon, which was expected to take place at the National Gallery of Modern Art of Belém, but ended up consumed in a fire, during its installation, the only thing left is the catalogue. ...
The idea stem from Lis’81 – The International Drawing Biennale of Lisbon, which was expected to take place at the National Gallery of Modern Art of Belém, but ended up consumed in a fire, during its installation, the only thing left is the catalogue. ...
W4120
23.05.2011
Virginia Mastrogiannaki
WWW
The principal idea of the project has its roots on the "cosmogonist" myth of the Cosmic Egg, references of which we find in the history of almost all primitive cultures. We have been asked to research a "cosmogonist" myth and then to carry out a project ...
The principal idea of the project has its roots on the "cosmogonist" myth of the Cosmic Egg, references of which we find in the history of almost all primitive cultures. We have been asked to research a "cosmogonist" myth and then to carry out a project ...
W5754
21.05.2013
Like birds on the water - Laura Carthew
WWW
Laura Carthew Like birds on the water, Propositional Photo montage of a performance. 2011 This piece was going to be a continuation of my ‘Living Memorial’ project (2011), which involved people acting as objects within memorial forms. I wanted ...
Laura Carthew Like birds on the water, Propositional Photo montage of a performance. 2011 This piece was going to be a continuation of my ‘Living Memorial’ project (2011), which involved people acting as objects within memorial forms. I wanted ...
W3870
19.05.2011
Small room of expression - erik mavrič
WWW
Description of the project The idea of the project is making structures that are based on the interference between the flat surface and light source. An intense light will be directed at the surface which will be positioned against the wall. The projec ...
Description of the project The idea of the project is making structures that are based on the interference between the flat surface and light source. An intense light will be directed at the surface which will be positioned against the wall. The projec ...
W5053
03.09.2012
Parish in Buztintxuri  - Taller Basico de Arquitectura [TBA]
WWW
Parish in Buztintxuri (2011) The building is principally developed on the ground floor. Functional issues make necessary to emerge a second level in the central area. This space contains technical spaces. The building is functionally differentiated ...
Parish in Buztintxuri (2011) The building is principally developed on the ground floor. Functional issues make necessary to emerge a second level in the central area. This space contains technical spaces. The building is functionally differentiated ...
W4573
25.05.2011
Emily Puthoff
WWW
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 ...
W5457
20.10.2012
BUILDING DRAWING V: “LOST” (A Porcelain Landscape Room) - Ann Daly
WWW
Ann Daly adaly@aya.yale.edu BUILDING DRAWING V: “LOST” (A Porcelain Landscape Room) Part of a larger project "Looking for the Labyrinth: Re-collecting Versailles". Cast white porcelain, sculptural walls, total size approximately 16 feet x 12 ...
Ann Daly adaly@aya.yale.edu BUILDING DRAWING V: “LOST” (A Porcelain Landscape Room) Part of a larger project "Looking for the Labyrinth: Re-collecting Versailles". Cast white porcelain, sculptural walls, total size approximately 16 feet x 12 ...
W5414
20.10.2012
We called it a modest proposal - gerlach en koop
WWW
We called it a modest proposal We called it a modest proposal when we presented it, one morning, end of January 2008, at the headquarters of Europol, Raamweg 47 in The Hague (NL), a building almost completely hidden behind a dense thicket of ivy. A rad ...
We called it a modest proposal We called it a modest proposal when we presented it, one morning, end of January 2008, at the headquarters of Europol, Raamweg 47 in The Hague (NL), a building almost completely hidden behind a dense thicket of ivy. A rad ...
W3526
11.05.2011
T h e S o l a r E n e r g y F i e l d - Michael Jantzen
WWW
T h e S o l a r E n e r g y F i e l d Michael Jantzen © 2010 www.michaeljantzen.com ​My design inspiration for this alternative energy producing sculpture in the desert, comes from a conceptual symbolic representation of the micro energe ...
T h e S o l a r E n e r g y F i e l d Michael Jantzen © 2010 www.michaeljantzen.com ​My design inspiration for this alternative energy producing sculpture in the desert, comes from a conceptual symbolic representation of the micro energe ...
W4091
23.05.2011
UNREALIZEABLE PROJECT A000002 - Stefano W. Pasquini
WWW
UNREALIZEABLE PROJECT A000002: a found photo gets printed as big as a building. Please note that the bad quality of the files is due to the fact that scanners had a very low quality in 1994. You may see the whole series on http://stefanopasquini.net/con ...
UNREALIZEABLE PROJECT A000002: a found photo gets printed as big as a building. Please note that the bad quality of the files is due to the fact that scanners had a very low quality in 1994. You may see the whole series on http://stefanopasquini.net/con ...
W4622
25.05.2011
THE STAR OF MIAMI - Roberto Behar & Rosario Marquardt / R & R Studios
WWW
THE STAR OF MIAMI WATERMARK & PUBLIC PARK The origin of The Star of Miami is in the sky, the idea of hope and the world of tomorrow. Like a cardinal star that unites North, South, East and West, the northern star that guides sailors to new lands and a ...
THE STAR OF MIAMI WATERMARK & PUBLIC PARK The origin of The Star of Miami is in the sky, the idea of hope and the world of tomorrow. Like a cardinal star that unites North, South, East and West, the northern star that guides sailors to new lands and a ...
W4964
21.08.2012
Art Van Triest
WWW
no pics jet no youtube jet what I want to do is basically mechanically (physically) recreate a known (digitally modelled) scene from a actionfilm. the scene has a bullet that slowly splashes through a wall or glass or something like that.... ...
no pics jet no youtube jet what I want to do is basically mechanically (physically) recreate a known (digitally modelled) scene from a actionfilm. the scene has a bullet that slowly splashes through a wall or glass or something like that.... ...
W4363
25.05.2011
Brandon Walls Olsen
WWW
Passing by the neighboring quarters of a sightseeing tour business named “Incredible Adventures”, I found that the acronymous vinyl lettering had been scratched from their door’s signage. Not knowing why a company would make such a nonsensical alter ...
Passing by the neighboring quarters of a sightseeing tour business named “Incredible Adventures”, I found that the acronymous vinyl lettering had been scratched from their door’s signage. Not knowing why a company would make such a nonsensical alter ...
W4383
25.05.2011
Lunch - Tra Bouscaren
WWW
Tra Bouscaren: Lunch For the "Lunch" project, I propose to cut off a piece of my own ass and have it grown in a laboratory until it reaches some kind of meal-like proportions, and then eat it as a performance. In addition, I would like to to make ...
Tra Bouscaren: Lunch For the "Lunch" project, I propose to cut off a piece of my own ass and have it grown in a laboratory until it reaches some kind of meal-like proportions, and then eat it as a performance. In addition, I would like to to make ...
W5160
24.09.2012
See-Throughs - Anton Savov and Barak Reiser
WWW
SEE-THROUGHS A project proposal by Anton Savov and Barak Reiser Frankfurt, 2011 See-Throughs is a proposal for a pavilion to be situated on a square in a metropolitan location during the winter months - a time when the city’s open-air spaces are ...
SEE-THROUGHS A project proposal by Anton Savov and Barak Reiser Frankfurt, 2011 See-Throughs is a proposal for a pavilion to be situated on a square in a metropolitan location during the winter months - a time when the city’s open-air spaces are ...
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 ...
W3989
21.05.2011
Ordinary Fight Nights - Industry of the Ordinary
WWW
Industry of the Ordinary propose to stage Industry of the Ordinary Fight Nights. The art world is rife with petty enmities and personal disagreements. What better way to sort these out once and for all than to offer protagonists (antagonists) the opportun ...
Industry of the Ordinary propose to stage Industry of the Ordinary Fight Nights. The art world is rife with petty enmities and personal disagreements. What better way to sort these out once and for all than to offer protagonists (antagonists) the opportun ...