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.

Chen H.V.O + G.T. - Bertrand Lavier

MAK - Wien  - Rosemarie Trockel

The Rosetta Garden - Gary Simmons

The insurer - Fabrice Hybert

The World Record - General Idea

Tower Cranes, Paris  - Tadashi Kawamata

The bridge according to Jeong-a's dream - Koo Jeong

Monumento all'agricoltura 1969-70 - Alighiero Boetti

AUSSICHTSTURM, HOLZHAUS (WOHNHAUS), SCHWIMMBECKEN, FREIE FAHRT - Maria Eichhorn

Entwurf für einen erneuerten Malkasten 1992 - 1994 - Ulrike Holthöfer

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
#
Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W4750
27.05.2011
l’Arc d’University Street - Jack Mackie
WWW
For the better part of the last 75 years, Seattle’s Alaska Way Viaduct has dominated Seattle’s Central Waterfront. Now scheduled for demolition, Seattle will, as apparently planned, simply clearcut the viaduct form the waterfront in as attempted exor ...
For the better part of the last 75 years, Seattle’s Alaska Way Viaduct has dominated Seattle’s Central Waterfront. Now scheduled for demolition, Seattle will, as apparently planned, simply clearcut the viaduct form the waterfront in as attempted exor ...
W4657
25.05.2011
BLUE LASER LIGHT PIECE - Karen Gunderson
WWW
BLUE LASER LIGHT PIECE The location could be any small town or an area of a big town which has buildings that house many different religions. Sites: The highest point on each of the religious buildings. Materials: Blue laser light mechanisms, power ...
BLUE LASER LIGHT PIECE The location could be any small town or an area of a big town which has buildings that house many different religions. Sites: The highest point on each of the religious buildings. Materials: Blue laser light mechanisms, power ...
W4762
28.05.2011
M. Fielder
WWW
I had planned on submitting an unrealizable idea for the AUP archives project but I had failed to submit my online proposal by its deadline of May 15th. This non-action and my inability to meet that deadline has transformed into a new unrealized project,. ...
I had planned on submitting an unrealizable idea for the AUP archives project but I had failed to submit my online proposal by its deadline of May 15th. This non-action and my inability to meet that deadline has transformed into a new unrealized project,. ...
U9290
01.01.1997
d'un projet dédié aux victimes de la Shoah. - Christian Boltanski
Unbuilt Roads
Il y a quelques années, j'ai éte invité à réfléchir à la réalisation d'un projet dédié aux victimes de la Shoah. Ce monument devait être installé en face du Reichstag à Berlin. J'avais répondu alors que je pensais que les monuments étaient ...
Il y a quelques années, j'ai éte invité à réfléchir à la réalisation d'un projet dédié aux victimes de la Shoah. Ce monument devait être installé en face du Reichstag à Berlin. J'avais répondu alors que je pensais que les monuments étaient ...
W4025
22.05.2011
Guardians of Art  - Holly Crawford
WWW
Proposal: Inside Standing/Conversations with the Guardians of Art Proposed to the Tate Modern, sent to Ben B. I meet and discussed this and screening of Critical Conversations in a Limo. Guardians of Art Museum guards are the human face ...
Proposal: Inside Standing/Conversations with the Guardians of Art Proposed to the Tate Modern, sent to Ben B. I meet and discussed this and screening of Critical Conversations in a Limo. Guardians of Art Museum guards are the human face ...
U9533
01.01.1992
AUSSICHTSTURM, HOLZHAUS (WOHNHAUS), SCHWIMMBECKEN, FREIE FAHRT - Maria Eichhorn
Unbuilt Roads
AUSSICHTSTURM Auf der höchsten Erhebung einer Landschaft einen 33 Meter hohen Aussichtsturm in einer offenen Konstruktion (Stahlskelettbauweise) bauen. Mit standigen Offnungszeiten. HOLZHAUS (WOHNHAUS) In einer Gegend mit wenigen oder keinen Hau ...
AUSSICHTSTURM Auf der höchsten Erhebung einer Landschaft einen 33 Meter hohen Aussichtsturm in einer offenen Konstruktion (Stahlskelettbauweise) bauen. Mit standigen Offnungszeiten. HOLZHAUS (WOHNHAUS) In einer Gegend mit wenigen oder keinen Hau ...
W4045
22.05.2011
Bag - Ellie Brown
WWW
I have been collecting the contents of peoples' bags, purses, backpacks, etc. for the past 18 months as part of the BAG project. http://elliebrown.com/section/94108_BAG.html I would like to display all 144 bag of what people were willing to part with. ...
I have been collecting the contents of peoples' bags, purses, backpacks, etc. for the past 18 months as part of the BAG project. http://elliebrown.com/section/94108_BAG.html I would like to display all 144 bag of what people were willing to part with. ...
W4593
25.05.2011
Sketch-collage for a project - antonio menchen
WWW
Untitled. 2008. Sketch-collage for a project. Variable measures. ...
Untitled. 2008. Sketch-collage for a project. Variable measures. ...
W4489
25.05.2011
Unrealized Project  - Na'ama Zussman
WWW
Unrealized Project 1 God, memory, if you didn’t exist, I would have to create you. Na’ama Zussman This work offers an Ongoing Meeting Between Reality and Memory, onto anyone can reflects and projects himself, as his dimensions of presentation – pa ...
Unrealized Project 1 God, memory, if you didn’t exist, I would have to create you. Na’ama Zussman This work offers an Ongoing Meeting Between Reality and Memory, onto anyone can reflects and projects himself, as his dimensions of presentation – pa ...
W5341
18.10.2012
Peter Harris
WWW
2 A4 pencil drawings from the series 'Art Dads' for an unrealisable film. ART DADS My unrealisable idea would be to go back in time and be the son of different ‘art dads’. This would consist of me being filmed doing various father and son acti ...
2 A4 pencil drawings from the series 'Art Dads' for an unrealisable film. ART DADS My unrealisable idea would be to go back in time and be the son of different ‘art dads’. This would consist of me being filmed doing various father and son acti ...
W4917
15.08.2012
Oxford Toilet Exchange - Katie Herzog
WWW
Oxford Toilet Exchange My proposed exchange will be facilitated via the swapping of doors in the stalls of the public toilet at the Oxford University Library with stall doors in the Oxford Public Library. Library Toilet as Final Frontier: On Reject ...
Oxford Toilet Exchange My proposed exchange will be facilitated via the swapping of doors in the stalls of the public toilet at the Oxford University Library with stall doors in the Oxford Public Library. Library Toilet as Final Frontier: On Reject ...
W4003
22.05.2011
Subject to Terms of Use - Caspar Lam
WWW
Thought experiment visualization: the view through a pair of Search Engine Spectacles Artist: Caspar Lam (casparlam@aya.yale.edu) Title: Subject to Terms of Use Description: Thought experiment visualization: the view through a pair of Search Engine ...
Thought experiment visualization: the view through a pair of Search Engine Spectacles Artist: Caspar Lam (casparlam@aya.yale.edu) Title: Subject to Terms of Use Description: Thought experiment visualization: the view through a pair of Search Engine ...
W5419
20.10.2012
UTOPIAS ARE FOR BIRDS - Alvaro Urbano
WWW
UTOPIAS ARE FOR BIRDS 2012 - Ongoing Utopia is a non-place, a good-place. Utopia is defined as an idyllic society with a legal system and socio-political ideals, a society living in harmony, between geographical dislocation and intellectual positivi ...
UTOPIAS ARE FOR BIRDS 2012 - Ongoing Utopia is a non-place, a good-place. Utopia is defined as an idyllic society with a legal system and socio-political ideals, a society living in harmony, between geographical dislocation and intellectual positivi ...
U9983
01.01.1994
To Two Too; Hypothetical Monument for a Natural Disaster - Jeffrey Wisniewski
Unbuilt Roads
(222) steel, wire mesh containers, 'gitter boxes', half filled with architectural and cultural debris with other miscellaneous rubble (22) solar panels with battery bank, etc. (solar system) (6) LCD video projectors; video and live television broad ...
(222) steel, wire mesh containers, 'gitter boxes', half filled with architectural and cultural debris with other miscellaneous rubble (22) solar panels with battery bank, etc. (solar system) (6) LCD video projectors; video and live television broad ...
W4547
25.05.2011
ICONIC VIRTUALITY - Peter Dyson/THE ALTERMODERN GROUP
WWW
ICONIC VIRTUALITY Uluru, the World Heritage-listed site in central Australia has been a spiritual icon for the indigenous people of the island continent for over 60,000 years and a focus for white man’s tourism for a mere 160 years. It is a formida ...
ICONIC VIRTUALITY Uluru, the World Heritage-listed site in central Australia has been a spiritual icon for the indigenous people of the island continent for over 60,000 years and a focus for white man’s tourism for a mere 160 years. It is a formida ...
W4213
24.05.2011
MAXXI TV - ELASTIC Group of Artistic Research
WWW
MAXXI TV, unrealized project by ELASTIC Group of Artistic Research for the MAXXI- National Museum of the 21st Century Arts in Rome (Italy) Report on the approach to the subject,work placement and dialogue with the architecture of the museum: ...
MAXXI TV, unrealized project by ELASTIC Group of Artistic Research for the MAXXI- National Museum of the 21st Century Arts in Rome (Italy) Report on the approach to the subject,work placement and dialogue with the architecture of the museum: ...
W4102
23.05.2011
IMNOW (I-aM-NOW) - Shlomit Lehavi
WWW
IMNOW is an emergent identity composed of digital footprints across major social media platforms that challenges and explores current definitions of space (public vs. private, physical vs. virtual,) and time, with regard to contemporary notions of friends ...
IMNOW is an emergent identity composed of digital footprints across major social media platforms that challenges and explores current definitions of space (public vs. private, physical vs. virtual,) and time, with regard to contemporary notions of friends ...
W4117
23.05.2011
Water and air - Marisa Prefer
WWW
Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.  -Jacques Yves Cousteau I am working using well-known objects as well as invisible devices. Creating multidimensional collage using public space and a ...
Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.  -Jacques Yves Cousteau I am working using well-known objects as well as invisible devices. Creating multidimensional collage using public space and a ...
W4233
24.05.2011
Elise Lammer
WWW
This work is an homage to the lost artwork by John Baldessari "Untitled (after Palm Tree (for Charlemagne)" 1975. This unrealized project aims to collect similar postcards as the ones displayed in Peter Kirby's documentary and recreate Baldessari's lost ...
This work is an homage to the lost artwork by John Baldessari "Untitled (after Palm Tree (for Charlemagne)" 1975. This unrealized project aims to collect similar postcards as the ones displayed in Peter Kirby's documentary and recreate Baldessari's lost ...
W10484
28.04.2014
Tower (Without Walls) - Esther Shalev-Gerz
WWW
Jerusalem, Israel In 1998 Esther Shalev-Gerz proposed the intervention Tower (Without Walls) to the city of Jerusalem. The project consisted of imagining Jerusalem without city walls, by projecting the image of the streets located on the other side ont ...
Jerusalem, Israel In 1998 Esther Shalev-Gerz proposed the intervention Tower (Without Walls) to the city of Jerusalem. The project consisted of imagining Jerusalem without city walls, by projecting the image of the streets located on the other side ont ...
W5244
09.10.2012
Legal Notices - Aniko Doman
WWW
Graphic design -- corporate communication Project title: Legal Notices Graphic designer: Aniko Doman Client/employer: Clark County School District, Nevada, US (a public K-12 educational institution, serving over 300,000 students) ...
Graphic design -- corporate communication Project title: Legal Notices Graphic designer: Aniko Doman Client/employer: Clark County School District, Nevada, US (a public K-12 educational institution, serving over 300,000 students) ...
W4475
25.05.2011
Veronica Wilton
WWW
W5095
12.09.2012
(un)realized words - Kathryn Hummel
WWW
(un)realized words Kathryn Hummel (un)realized words is an installation combining photographs and paper objects (used and new) to form an interactive work out of a variety of incomplete/in-progress elements. I do not recall at what age I first began ...
(un)realized words Kathryn Hummel (un)realized words is an installation combining photographs and paper objects (used and new) to form an interactive work out of a variety of incomplete/in-progress elements. I do not recall at what age I first began ...
U9892
16.02.1997
Fax Transmission - Raymond Pettibone and Jason Rhoades
Unbuilt Roads
Fax to: HANS-ULRICH OBRIST From Jason Rhoades Greeting HAN-ULRICH Well the project sounded great but I didn't have any unfulfilled projects that I sad appropriate for the project, but just last sunday I was at the race track with raymon pettibone ...
Fax to: HANS-ULRICH OBRIST From Jason Rhoades Greeting HAN-ULRICH Well the project sounded great but I didn't have any unfulfilled projects that I sad appropriate for the project, but just last sunday I was at the race track with raymon pettibone ...
W4300
24.05.2011
Laundry Line - zavick botha
WWW
Washing clothes and laundry lines are common day to day images of human activity throughout most of the world. Although in Western society something so ordinary now takes place behind closed doors. Some people use clothes to express their identity, in oth ...
Washing clothes and laundry lines are common day to day images of human activity throughout most of the world. Although in Western society something so ordinary now takes place behind closed doors. Some people use clothes to express their identity, in oth ...
W5138
21.09.2012
Good Vibrations - Carlo Crovato
WWW
To illuminate the dark space beneath hoch-bahn bridges using Off the Grid techniques. Project title Good Vibrations. there will be moving illumination on underside of U-Bahn bridges as train passes overhead. 1 17 June 2011 Carlo Crovato Berli ...
To illuminate the dark space beneath hoch-bahn bridges using Off the Grid techniques. Project title Good Vibrations. there will be moving illumination on underside of U-Bahn bridges as train passes overhead. 1 17 June 2011 Carlo Crovato Berli ...