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.

Festival du film de famille - Pierre Huyghe

Projekt für die Landschaft des Mont-de-Sene (Burgund) im Rahmen eines öffentlichen Auftrags des französischen Kultusministeriums - Markus Raetz

Project tor the Veterans Administration Hospital--Bay Pines, Florida. - Robert Morris

Dog Jaw Monument - A Futurist Tele-introject - Leon Golub

PROJEKT - Ulrich Rückreim

Electronic Theater - Laurie Anderson

My House - Uri Tzaig

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

Relatum (Iron Plate and Stone) - Lee Ufan

Monumento all'agricoltura 1969-70 - Alighiero Boetti

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
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Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W4261
24.05.2011
The Bridge (Installation) - Arcady Kotler
WWW
Arcady Kotler The Bridge (Installation) Installation “The Bridge” is represented by a fragile rope bridge suspended over the exhibition space from wall to wall. The ropes and strings are tied in a way that resembles the appearance of New York ...
Arcady Kotler The Bridge (Installation) Installation “The Bridge” is represented by a fragile rope bridge suspended over the exhibition space from wall to wall. The ropes and strings are tied in a way that resembles the appearance of New York ...
W5436
20.10.2012
the “A” project  - Khalil Charif
WWW
the A project A global action to unite people and make sound waves from ourselves to be heard anywhere in the world. Description: a sound wave that get people from everywhere in the world to say "a", at the same time, for as longer as they can, unli ...
the A project A global action to unite people and make sound waves from ourselves to be heard anywhere in the world. Description: a sound wave that get people from everywhere in the world to say "a", at the same time, for as longer as they can, unli ...
W5899
18.10.2013
Bagatelle - Matthijs Muller
WWW
A competition to design a landmark at the motorway exit nearby a nature reserve made me design Bagatelle. The park nearby has a strange history. First, in the early 1960's the polder was used to dump polluted mud from the port of Rotterdam. Then for over ...
A competition to design a landmark at the motorway exit nearby a nature reserve made me design Bagatelle. The park nearby has a strange history. First, in the early 1960's the polder was used to dump polluted mud from the port of Rotterdam. Then for over ...
W4909
14.08.2012
Bring Your Own Balloon Party Invitations - Anna Wolfe-Pauly
WWW
This is a set of invitations made for a Bring Your Own Balloon Party. The invitations have come to serve the grid rather than the balloon community. The premise of the unrealized party is that each person holding an invitation would escort a balloon into ...
This is a set of invitations made for a Bring Your Own Balloon Party. The invitations have come to serve the grid rather than the balloon community. The premise of the unrealized party is that each person holding an invitation would escort a balloon into ...
W4312
24.05.2011
Msquare4 - Andre Kodde
WWW
A call for unrealized projects Msquare4 You walk on an apparently miles long quay and all of a sudden a museum building arises. This time on poles over the water, but Msquare4 can be placed in every desired environment. Msquare4’s floor-plan is a gr ...
A call for unrealized projects Msquare4 You walk on an apparently miles long quay and all of a sudden a museum building arises. This time on poles over the water, but Msquare4 can be placed in every desired environment. Msquare4’s floor-plan is a gr ...
W4018
22.05.2011
Ladder, 1991 - Mimmo Catania
WWW
Ladder, 1991: It was a project to be realized for Documenta IX. At Friediricianum a steel ladder as high as the building might have been installed during the exhibition as a simbol to reach the sky. ...
Ladder, 1991: It was a project to be realized for Documenta IX. At Friediricianum a steel ladder as high as the building might have been installed during the exhibition as a simbol to reach the sky. ...
W3684
16.05.2011
Terje Nicolaisen
WWW
Sketches has indeed been looked upon as valuable, through various historians and art lovers. Even the meta-character of the proposals has been valued, but not to fulfilment. Leonardo da Vinci's draw- ings for a helicopter in the renaissance was seen at th ...
Sketches has indeed been looked upon as valuable, through various historians and art lovers. Even the meta-character of the proposals has been valued, but not to fulfilment. Leonardo da Vinci's draw- ings for a helicopter in the renaissance was seen at th ...
W4860
08.08.2012
Andrew Tosiello
WWW
A two-page screenplay for a video based on a scene in the film GoodFellas. In the original Henry Hill accesses the Copacabana by way of the Service Entrance, but is given preferred seating upon arrival at the main stage. ...
A two-page screenplay for a video based on a scene in the film GoodFellas. In the original Henry Hill accesses the Copacabana by way of the Service Entrance, but is given preferred seating upon arrival at the main stage. ...
W4592
25.05.2011
Gap Ecology - David Brooks
WWW
Gap Ecology (5 Still Lives with Cherry Pickers and Palms) Conceptual Context: The current recession has halted dozens of construction projects around New York City at an alarming rate. The Building Trades Employersʼ Association is reporting nearly $5 b ...
Gap Ecology (5 Still Lives with Cherry Pickers and Palms) Conceptual Context: The current recession has halted dozens of construction projects around New York City at an alarming rate. The Building Trades Employersʼ Association is reporting nearly $5 b ...
W3594
13.05.2011
Marmangios in the city - Ana Fernández (Miranda Texidor)
WWW
I am interested in the poetic research, finding and wonderment of other worlds. I find the keeping and tending of imaginary spaces fascinating. These spaces are playful moments of time or matter, which exist mainly in children’s play as marvelous secret ...
I am interested in the poetic research, finding and wonderment of other worlds. I find the keeping and tending of imaginary spaces fascinating. These spaces are playful moments of time or matter, which exist mainly in children’s play as marvelous secret ...
W4516
25.05.2011
Viktor Timofeev
WWW
In this painting I have "created" a triumphal arch constructed out of 13 worker-housing units, stacked precariously and defying the laws of physics. While this village/monument is rendered to appear structurally sound, its context is most certainly utopia ...
In this painting I have "created" a triumphal arch constructed out of 13 worker-housing units, stacked precariously and defying the laws of physics. While this village/monument is rendered to appear structurally sound, its context is most certainly utopia ...
W11076
07.04.2016
Temple of Modern Virtue - Vilja Achté
WWW
My work revolves around the relevance of the intentionally incomplete state as a method of production in art and design practice. The term itself is an adaptation of the Renaissance term ‘non-finito’, which quite literally means ‘not finished’, an ...
My work revolves around the relevance of the intentionally incomplete state as a method of production in art and design practice. The term itself is an adaptation of the Renaissance term ‘non-finito’, which quite literally means ‘not finished’, an ...
W5262
13.10.2012
Seeing the Unseen - Maria Paschalidou
WWW
maria Paschalidou artist, art professor www.mariapaschalidou.com paschalmari@yahoo.com Athens, October 13, 2012 Seeing the Unseen Seeing the Unseen is an ongoing project of tracing the ‘unseen’, the most invisible and/or unobserved sites of an ...
maria Paschalidou artist, art professor www.mariapaschalidou.com paschalmari@yahoo.com Athens, October 13, 2012 Seeing the Unseen Seeing the Unseen is an ongoing project of tracing the ‘unseen’, the most invisible and/or unobserved sites of an ...
U9711
01.01.1989
2 Architecture Towers - Robert Irwin
Unbuilt Roads
A competition won in 1989 Tower One: was proposed to sit in a roundabout next to the Chicago river .. 65' (feet) in height, the base an octagonal cast iron construction stands on a slightly mounded cast rubber base ... eight triangular beams thrust upw ...
A competition won in 1989 Tower One: was proposed to sit in a roundabout next to the Chicago river .. 65' (feet) in height, the base an octagonal cast iron construction stands on a slightly mounded cast rubber base ... eight triangular beams thrust upw ...
W3540
11.05.2011
New Bridge for Dilligence  - Tomas Pecha
WWW
new bridge for dilligence beer bridge for oversitting. sitting on more chairs, oversitting from place to placeinstead of direct movement and compulsory czech beer.some ideas are thirsty.some need to be oversitted. tommorrow reality. intention of new bri ...
new bridge for dilligence beer bridge for oversitting. sitting on more chairs, oversitting from place to placeinstead of direct movement and compulsory czech beer.some ideas are thirsty.some need to be oversitted. tommorrow reality. intention of new bri ...
W3533
11.05.2011
The Pagoda - Michael Jantzen
WWW
Would be made from sustainably grown Western Red Cedar wood. Approximately twenty one feet wide, fifteen feet deep, and eighteen feet tall. ...
Would be made from sustainably grown Western Red Cedar wood. Approximately twenty one feet wide, fifteen feet deep, and eighteen feet tall. ...
W4400
25.05.2011
INCEPTION - Nick Sung
WWW
EPTION The installation of an exact replica of an AMC movie theatre in Emeryville, California in which a section of the end credits of Christopher Nolan's Inception will play, continuously looped, day and night, ad infinitum. Against the backdrop o ...
EPTION The installation of an exact replica of an AMC movie theatre in Emeryville, California in which a section of the end credits of Christopher Nolan's Inception will play, continuously looped, day and night, ad infinitum. Against the backdrop o ...
W4719
26.05.2011
We Might Be Snowmakers - Glacial Risk Management Institute (GRMI): Angela Ellsworth and Leigh McCarthy
WWW
Glacial Risk Management Institute (GRMI): Angela Ellsworth and Leigh McCarthy Title: We Might Be Snowmakers In order to slow or reverse the retreat of glaciers, the GRMI proposes setting up large-scale snow blowers to increase the size of Europe’s la ...
Glacial Risk Management Institute (GRMI): Angela Ellsworth and Leigh McCarthy Title: We Might Be Snowmakers In order to slow or reverse the retreat of glaciers, the GRMI proposes setting up large-scale snow blowers to increase the size of Europe’s la ...
U9684
01.01.1992
Entwurf für einen erneuerten Malkasten 1992 - 1994 - Ulrike Holthöfer
Unbuilt Roads
„Entwurf für einen erneuerten Malkasten" 1992 - 1994 Gemeinschaftsprojekt Jacobischer Garten/ Malkasten Düsseldorf: 22000 m2 großer historischer Garten und Gebäudesubstanz (Jacobihaus, Hentrichbau, Randgebäude) im Zentrum der Stadt Düsse ...
„Entwurf für einen erneuerten Malkasten" 1992 - 1994 Gemeinschaftsprojekt Jacobischer Garten/ Malkasten Düsseldorf: 22000 m2 großer historischer Garten und Gebäudesubstanz (Jacobihaus, Hentrichbau, Randgebäude) im Zentrum der Stadt Düsse ...
W5458
20.10.2012
Jeffrey Millsaps
WWW
My submission calls for a form of weir to be built at the Schuylkill River Environmental Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The structure, which is designed to aerate the water and allow for the deposit of silt, is built in the shape of skyscrapers... ...
My submission calls for a form of weir to be built at the Schuylkill River Environmental Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The structure, which is designed to aerate the water and allow for the deposit of silt, is built in the shape of skyscrapers... ...
D10796
09.09.2012
"Clouds" of mist/steam - Abraham Cruzvillegas
DAAD
The idea is to hang a sprinkling system from the already existing structure on the facade of Kule building. The goal is to make intermittently "Clouds" of mist/steam. ...
The idea is to hang a sprinkling system from the already existing structure on the facade of Kule building. The goal is to make intermittently "Clouds" of mist/steam. ...
W4899
11.08.2012
Brasília, Cars, Pools & Other Modernities - Clarissa Tossin
WWW
“Brasília, Cars, Pools & Other Modernities” is the culmination of a body of work that departs from my experience of growing up in Brasília, Brazil’s planned capital. The project consists of a site-specific action in which a 1970s Volkswagen Brasil ...
“Brasília, Cars, Pools & Other Modernities” is the culmination of a body of work that departs from my experience of growing up in Brasília, Brazil’s planned capital. The project consists of a site-specific action in which a 1970s Volkswagen Brasil ...
W4781
03.06.2011
City of Today: Development for Feminine Urbanism  - Coralina Meyer
WWW
City of Today: Development for Feminine Urbanism A proposal for a fresh urban perspective, the City of Today is a product of the Old Girls Club. It is a series of presentations/drawings/performances/historic fictions where clients are asked to parti ...
City of Today: Development for Feminine Urbanism A proposal for a fresh urban perspective, the City of Today is a product of the Old Girls Club. It is a series of presentations/drawings/performances/historic fictions where clients are asked to parti ...
W4852
08.08.2012
Ada Muntean
WWW
These are 2 photos of 2 experimental works which consist in the process of the reconstruction of possible realities from former realities. Basicaly they are stripes (cut from photos and drawings) reordered and sticked in a different way from the initial.. ...
These are 2 photos of 2 experimental works which consist in the process of the reconstruction of possible realities from former realities. Basicaly they are stripes (cut from photos and drawings) reordered and sticked in a different way from the initial.. ...
W4581
25.05.2011
Oasis Project Proposal  - Carrie Paterson
WWW
Image 1 Oasis Project Proposal circa 2002-2004 Drawings show a device for water collection, condensation, and purification connected by ‘stem’ to an underground storage tank, accessed via a tap that operates with a pressure pump to retrieve wate ...
Image 1 Oasis Project Proposal circa 2002-2004 Drawings show a device for water collection, condensation, and purification connected by ‘stem’ to an underground storage tank, accessed via a tap that operates with a pressure pump to retrieve wate ...
W4515
25.05.2011
Viktor Timofeev
WWW
In this painting I have "created" a triumphal arch constructed out of 13 worker-housing units, stacked precariously and defying the laws of physics. While this village/monument is rendered to appear structurally sound, its context is most certainly utopia ...
In this painting I have "created" a triumphal arch constructed out of 13 worker-housing units, stacked precariously and defying the laws of physics. While this village/monument is rendered to appear structurally sound, its context is most certainly utopia ...