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.

Just Before Dawn - David Lamelas

Ceinture - Huang Ping Yong

Making for Art - 100 Unsucceeded Presentation - 1995, 1996,  - Yutaka Sone

Double Exposure 1995-6  - Dan Graham

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

Project pour le parc de sculpture de Vassiviére - Paul-Armand Gette

The Clock - Ayse Erkmen

Project for the Initiative Mahnmal Homosexuellenverfolgung, Frankfurt  - Jeff Wall

"Ileana, I love you" - Maurizo Cattelan

<A Public Misery Message> - Critical Art Ensemble

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
#
Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
U9277
01.01.1997
PROPOSALl + VOORSTEL - Guillame Bijl
Unbuilt Roads
An abstract sculpture is standing on an ellipse pavement platform, surrounded by city lights, a city seal and a small flower arrangement. Een buitenaards stalen abstract object (±7m) is midden in de stadskem geland. Er zijn balustraden rond gebouwd. ...
An abstract sculpture is standing on an ellipse pavement platform, surrounded by city lights, a city seal and a small flower arrangement. Een buitenaards stalen abstract object (±7m) is midden in de stadskem geland. Er zijn balustraden rond gebouwd. ...
W4735
26.05.2011
Swans - Wiebke Maria Wachmann
WWW
W4628
25.05.2011
The Hackney Flyover - David Cotterrell
WWW
The Hackney Flyover Driving London Forward In 2008 the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) received a long-awaited feasibility study from their cost-consultants, Turner and Townsend Group. While the Olympic site development cost projections were consider ...
The Hackney Flyover Driving London Forward In 2008 the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) received a long-awaited feasibility study from their cost-consultants, Turner and Townsend Group. While the Olympic site development cost projections were consider ...
W4287
24.05.2011
Struggling with the Ancestors - Charlie Lucas
WWW
Charlie Lucas (Tin Man) Struggling with the Ancestors Proposal for Vision and Vernacular Eight African American Artists in Venice Presented by American Folk Art Museum at Fondaco dei Tedeschi, June 2011 Artist Statement I create beauty from t ...
Charlie Lucas (Tin Man) Struggling with the Ancestors Proposal for Vision and Vernacular Eight African American Artists in Venice Presented by American Folk Art Museum at Fondaco dei Tedeschi, June 2011 Artist Statement I create beauty from t ...
D10785
01.01.2013
TO BUY A CAR AND DROP IT IN THE OCEAN IN THE MIDDLE OF A FULLMOON NIGHT - Bruzzone
DAAD
TO BUY A CAR AND DROP IT IN THE OCEAN IN THE MIDDLE OF A FULLMOON NIGHT ...
TO BUY A CAR AND DROP IT IN THE OCEAN IN THE MIDDLE OF A FULLMOON NIGHT ...
W4271
24.05.2011
Kristin Jones / Andrew Ginzel
WWW
Oregon Convention Center Proposal Portland, Oregon 1988 ...
Oregon Convention Center Proposal Portland, Oregon 1988 ...
W5098
13.09.2012
we love live - Copa & Sordes
WWW
we love live an idea for an ornament in public space ...
we love live an idea for an ornament in public space ...
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 ...
W5133
19.09.2012
Lost Heritage in Dark Museum  - Yochai Avrahami
WWW
Lost Heritage in Dark Museum - Yochai Avrahami The project suggests installation of few displays, that uses "left overs" of various practices of museology. these practices where inspired by research, observing, interviews and other methods in museums an ...
Lost Heritage in Dark Museum - Yochai Avrahami The project suggests installation of few displays, that uses "left overs" of various practices of museology. these practices where inspired by research, observing, interviews and other methods in museums an ...
W5898
18.10.2013
Open tunnel - Matthijs Muller
WWW
A hilly landscape makes lines of trees disappear behind nearby hills or offers a view at a tree from above. In the Netherlands the flatness of the landscape makes that impossible. But, since the whole country is manmade, the solution for this is also ma ...
A hilly landscape makes lines of trees disappear behind nearby hills or offers a view at a tree from above. In the Netherlands the flatness of the landscape makes that impossible. But, since the whole country is manmade, the solution for this is also ma ...
W5207
04.10.2012
Image Intermission - Andreas M. Kaufmann
WWW
Dear all, here comes another submission for possible inclusion in AUP at the daadgalerie in Berlin: Project "Bilderpause" / "Image Intermission" 1996/2000 The Project and the photographs are attached to that form. Enjoy! Bilderpause Ein Pause ...
Dear all, here comes another submission for possible inclusion in AUP at the daadgalerie in Berlin: Project "Bilderpause" / "Image Intermission" 1996/2000 The Project and the photographs are attached to that form. Enjoy! Bilderpause Ein Pause ...
W4873
09.08.2012
Forms of Responsibility - Jenny Brown
WWW
Forms of Responsibility • Recent Projects by Jenny Brown Jenny Brown Tied (Melting Ice Sea Creatures), 2006 Video Still Variable Dimensions In early 2005, an elegant gesture of product repatriation was conceived and produced by Jenny Brown as a way of b ...
Forms of Responsibility • Recent Projects by Jenny Brown Jenny Brown Tied (Melting Ice Sea Creatures), 2006 Video Still Variable Dimensions In early 2005, an elegant gesture of product repatriation was conceived and produced by Jenny Brown as a way of b ...
U9804
25.03.1997
Unrealized Projects - Jonas Meckas
Unbuilt Roads
Dear Hans Ulrich: Tonight I am thinking about my unrealized projects. I have many of them. One is: To publish a book of IDEAS. I consider that ideas are the cheapest thing in the world. I have about 10,000 of them. But I have no time to put them all in ...
Dear Hans Ulrich: Tonight I am thinking about my unrealized projects. I have many of them. One is: To publish a book of IDEAS. I consider that ideas are the cheapest thing in the world. I have about 10,000 of them. But I have no time to put them all in ...
W4418
25.05.2011
#GUIDE NO.1  - Oana Stoica & Vilhelem Jozsef Hunor
WWW
SUBJECT: What would have happened if, at 20 years old, you had gone to college for art instead of architecture? What would have happened if you had been a visual artist who expressed himself through two-dimensional video, objects, etc...? What if we offer ...
SUBJECT: What would have happened if, at 20 years old, you had gone to college for art instead of architecture? What would have happened if you had been a visual artist who expressed himself through two-dimensional video, objects, etc...? What if we offer ...
W3934
20.05.2011
No Vacancy 2008 - ANNA LASCARI
WWW
“No Vacancy” is a multi-layer installation. It has obvious references to Led Zeppelin’s song “Stairway to Heaven,” to crystal utopias of fairy tales and to the stairways of Louise Bourgeois, which lead to dark attics. ...
“No Vacancy” is a multi-layer installation. It has obvious references to Led Zeppelin’s song “Stairway to Heaven,” to crystal utopias of fairy tales and to the stairways of Louise Bourgeois, which lead to dark attics. ...
W4449
25.05.2011
20 Years After  - Xavier Rayuela
WWW
20 Years After As a par-time AIDS activist and militant, I decided to create an event to celebrate "A Day Without Art" by proposing an intervention / intrusion and re-staging residuals of my previous events related to AIDS. As an artist I was always fa ...
20 Years After As a par-time AIDS activist and militant, I decided to create an event to celebrate "A Day Without Art" by proposing an intervention / intrusion and re-staging residuals of my previous events related to AIDS. As an artist I was always fa ...
W5464
21.10.2012
Electron Self-Portrait - Lauren Jo
WWW
An electron microscope uses a beam of electrons to illuminate a specimen and produce a magnified image. In particular, a scanning electron microscope shoots focused electron beams that rather than carrying an image itself back to the lens, probes the spec ...
An electron microscope uses a beam of electrons to illuminate a specimen and produce a magnified image. In particular, a scanning electron microscope shoots focused electron beams that rather than carrying an image itself back to the lens, probes the spec ...
W10273
10.04.2014
Monument to the Iraq War Dead - Scott Sorli
WWW
Conservative estimates are that over one hundred thousand men, women, and children died in the Iraq War. Weapons of mass destruction that were used as justification for this illegal war were launched by the Americans and the British forces themselves. The ...
Conservative estimates are that over one hundred thousand men, women, and children died in the Iraq War. Weapons of mass destruction that were used as justification for this illegal war were launched by the Americans and the British forces themselves. The ...
W10569
12.06.2014
Roof Garden Proposal, Queen Street Station, Glasgow - Logan Sisley
WWW
This was a proposal in 2005 to plant a roof garden on a canopy connecting Queen Street Rail Station to Buchanan Street Subway Station. The idea was sent to various representatives in Scottish Rail and Strathclyde Passenger Transport. While it was deemed u ...
This was a proposal in 2005 to plant a roof garden on a canopy connecting Queen Street Rail Station to Buchanan Street Subway Station. The idea was sent to various representatives in Scottish Rail and Strathclyde Passenger Transport. While it was deemed u ...
W4923
18.08.2012
Hadas Tapouchi
WWW
TadasTapouchiArtist_Statement. The main reason for myself to apply to this open call is to work in a new environment and to find (new) artistic ways of expression, and off course to Stimulate art on live, Create a beneficial environment for the deve ...
TadasTapouchiArtist_Statement. The main reason for myself to apply to this open call is to work in a new environment and to find (new) artistic ways of expression, and off course to Stimulate art on live, Create a beneficial environment for the deve ...
W4068
23.05.2011
Alishia Duncanson
WWW
Title: “Mission Impossible 1” Materials: Wood and M.D.F board Corridor space containing 5- 20 drawings in space, creating semi obstructed spaces to be engaged with by the viewer. The work asks the viewer to investigate both space and time as each ...
Title: “Mission Impossible 1” Materials: Wood and M.D.F board Corridor space containing 5- 20 drawings in space, creating semi obstructed spaces to be engaged with by the viewer. The work asks the viewer to investigate both space and time as each ...
W4290
24.05.2011
Strategia Della Tensione - Faber Lorne
WWW
Strategia Della Tensione By Faber Lorne “Strategia Della Tensione” is plans to be made with plastic fence used on construction site. Once placed in a specific environment, the plastic fence of safety activates the temporary subtraction of ...
Strategia Della Tensione By Faber Lorne “Strategia Della Tensione” is plans to be made with plastic fence used on construction site. Once placed in a specific environment, the plastic fence of safety activates the temporary subtraction of ...
W5378
19.10.2012
Ocean Waves in the Desert Sky - Dena Peake
WWW
Set in a desert-like environment, the piece is a wind-activated, large scale kinetic sculpture that uses ocean imagery and sound. Windcatchers that resemble ocean waves are suspended above a rooftop to rotate and power the sound of ocean waves at street l ...
Set in a desert-like environment, the piece is a wind-activated, large scale kinetic sculpture that uses ocean imagery and sound. Windcatchers that resemble ocean waves are suspended above a rooftop to rotate and power the sound of ocean waves at street l ...
W4167
24.05.2011
Outopia - Eloise Kirk
WWW
Outopia ‘Outopia’ (meaning no place) is an on-going, fragmented project based on a fictional landscape. This landscape is neither here nor there; it exists only as representation of the internal self, in perpetual relation with the world. ...
Outopia ‘Outopia’ (meaning no place) is an on-going, fragmented project based on a fictional landscape. This landscape is neither here nor there; it exists only as representation of the internal self, in perpetual relation with the world. ...
W3506
11.05.2011
Evidence of Difference - Sarah Hemm
WWW
Evidence of Difference criteria: must take one photograph every day of 2011 that will represent evidence of my difference
work must answer the question, “what makes me different? what am I doing today that is different than everyone else? what se ...
Evidence of Difference criteria: must take one photograph every day of 2011 that will represent evidence of my difference
work must answer the question, “what makes me different? what am I doing today that is different than everyone else? what se ...
W4511
25.05.2011
Big Pending Coloured Glass Pipe Organ - Tina Braegger
WWW
Big Pending Coloured Glass Pipe Organ (Unrealized, Mai 2011) (50m x 36m x 18m Pending Coloured Glass Pipe Organ, Uyuni salt desert, Bolivia) What (form): It has long since been an idea of mine to build a big pending pipe organ out of co ...
Big Pending Coloured Glass Pipe Organ (Unrealized, Mai 2011) (50m x 36m x 18m Pending Coloured Glass Pipe Organ, Uyuni salt desert, Bolivia) What (form): It has long since been an idea of mine to build a big pending pipe organ out of co ...