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.

CIVITAS Stadtpostkarten - Lothar Baumgarten

Isometric Projection - Sol Lewitt

WATERWORKS - Mona Hatoum

Catwalk - Sylive Fleury

Nicht realisierte Projekte - Stefan Demary

Monumento all'agricoltura 1969-70 - Alighiero Boetti

No title, as the project only reached proposal stage - Rikrit Tiravanija

Unrealized project for Tate Gallery + ICA, 1969 - Gilbert and George

Museum - Katharina Fritsch

NON REALIZED PROJECTS - Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
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Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W4079
23.05.2011
O.K & K.O Bank - O.K & K.O Bank
WWW
This was a proposal realized for Neón Parallax Project in Geneva, Schwitzerland. This is an ambitious and singular public art project that will provide with luminous artworks to set on the roofs of buildings around the Plaine de Plainpalais Imagine a ...
This was a proposal realized for Neón Parallax Project in Geneva, Schwitzerland. This is an ambitious and singular public art project that will provide with luminous artworks to set on the roofs of buildings around the Plaine de Plainpalais Imagine a ...
W3520
11.05.2011
Steingrimur Eyfjord
WWW
These ideas are from a project I am working on which has the working title “KELLINGIN“ and is a collection of ideas, text and images. ...
These ideas are from a project I am working on which has the working title “KELLINGIN“ and is a collection of ideas, text and images. ...
W4805
07.08.2012
MATTHEW ROSE
WWW
Where Does It Itch? is a project involving 100 of my framed collage works aligned in grid or horizon on a wall. Originally slated for Ogilvy Mather Direct as a proposal, it was abandoned. This PDF is that original proposal. Matthew Rose is an Americ ...
Where Does It Itch? is a project involving 100 of my framed collage works aligned in grid or horizon on a wall. Originally slated for Ogilvy Mather Direct as a proposal, it was abandoned. This PDF is that original proposal. Matthew Rose is an Americ ...
W3925
20.05.2011
Proposal for Witches Memorial in Salem MA - Ed Levine
WWW
Proposal for Witches Memorial in Salem MA Giving voice to Witches Each of the 17 sculptural element is a musical instrument. Compressed air is cycled randomly through the internal pipe in each element. Consequently the sound will project around the si ...
Proposal for Witches Memorial in Salem MA Giving voice to Witches Each of the 17 sculptural element is a musical instrument. Compressed air is cycled randomly through the internal pipe in each element. Consequently the sound will project around the si ...
U9747
01.01.1968
A House of Dust - Alison Knowles
Unbuilt Roads
The House of Dust was first a computer poem using fortran language. The quatrains are all different, each line randomly connected. The form shifting categories for the house are: the material of manufature, the locations the light source and the inhabitan ...
The House of Dust was first a computer poem using fortran language. The quatrains are all different, each line randomly connected. The form shifting categories for the house are: the material of manufature, the locations the light source and the inhabitan ...
W4124
23.05.2011
Here/There - Matthew Slaats
WWW
Here/There Matthew Slaats Project Proposal Here/There is a virtual 3D exploration of the spatial, temporal, economic and physical relationships between environments in North and South America. Project Description Here/There aims to illustr ...
Here/There Matthew Slaats Project Proposal Here/There is a virtual 3D exploration of the spatial, temporal, economic and physical relationships between environments in North and South America. Project Description Here/There aims to illustr ...
W3683
16.05.2011
Mumfordshire - A Megalopolis - Bruce Asbestos
WWW
Mumfordshire is unrealised plan for a megalopolis (a series of interconnected urban areas), which seeks to re-imagine a complex but positive future of mega-cities and society. Mumfordshire is partly based on revising Lewis Mumford’s idea that the Roman ...
Mumfordshire is unrealised plan for a megalopolis (a series of interconnected urban areas), which seeks to re-imagine a complex but positive future of mega-cities and society. Mumfordshire is partly based on revising Lewis Mumford’s idea that the Roman ...
W4840
08.08.2012
Tableau Vivant and the subversive Feminine - andreas guibert
WWW
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna PhD in Practice (Doctor of Philosophy in Practice) Personal number: 0003 Andres Guibert Abstract The proposed project analyses how individual gay identities contest cultural policies in repressive regimes reformulating ...
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna PhD in Practice (Doctor of Philosophy in Practice) Personal number: 0003 Andres Guibert Abstract The proposed project analyses how individual gay identities contest cultural policies in repressive regimes reformulating ...
W4020
22.05.2011
Rural pleasure trip / an investigation of sounds - Gisela Weimann
WWW
Gisela Weimann >www.giselaweimann.de< Since the 80s the focal points of my projects are sound installations and experimental music-theatre productions that include artists and theorists from different fields and national descend. Gisela Weimann ...
Gisela Weimann >www.giselaweimann.de< Since the 80s the focal points of my projects are sound installations and experimental music-theatre productions that include artists and theorists from different fields and national descend. Gisela Weimann ...
W3843
19.05.2011
Pamela Harris
WWW
"When I was at art school, everyone else would make art and find the best parts and then try to cover up everything else so that was all you saw. I was fascinated by the part that didn't appear to be working and I'd keep working on that part until it took ...
"When I was at art school, everyone else would make art and find the best parts and then try to cover up everything else so that was all you saw. I was fascinated by the part that didn't appear to be working and I'd keep working on that part until it took ...
W4711
26.05.2011
The Intellectual Refuge(e) Camp – 21 tents for the 21st Century - Patrick Meagher & WORK.ac
WWW
Dear M. Buergel, Please find enclosed our proposal ‘The Intellectual Refuge(e) Camp – 21 tents for the 21st Century’, which your Leitmotifs for Documenta 12 inspired. Feeling immediately akin to your text, the Leitmotifs resonated with idea ...
Dear M. Buergel, Please find enclosed our proposal ‘The Intellectual Refuge(e) Camp – 21 tents for the 21st Century’, which your Leitmotifs for Documenta 12 inspired. Feeling immediately akin to your text, the Leitmotifs resonated with idea ...
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 ...
W4491
25.05.2011
An unrealized high relief sculpture project from Istanbul. - Dilara Akay
WWW
An unrealized high relief sculpture project from Istanbul. In October 2010 I was asked to propose a work for a building of a leading Turkish retail operation brand's headquarters in Istanbul. I made the presentation at the beginning of February 2011. And ...
An unrealized high relief sculpture project from Istanbul. In October 2010 I was asked to propose a work for a building of a leading Turkish retail operation brand's headquarters in Istanbul. I made the presentation at the beginning of February 2011. And ...
W4113
23.05.2011
Xenia Imagines - Simon Chambers
WWW
Xenia Imagines is a proposed website telling a hyperfiction of a painter who allegedly paints xenia, an early form of Roman still life. The paintings, if they do exist may be part of an imaginary collection of paintings inspired by the descriptions of Phi ...
Xenia Imagines is a proposed website telling a hyperfiction of a painter who allegedly paints xenia, an early form of Roman still life. The paintings, if they do exist may be part of an imaginary collection of paintings inspired by the descriptions of Phi ...
W4395
25.05.2011
63 Minutes  - Lawrence Daley
WWW
63 Minutes At precisely 01:00 on 31 October British Summer Time will, for 2010 at least, come to an end. As a result the sun will set at 16:37 and a full 63 minutes of daylight will have been lost. I want to remind the people of Brighton that come late ...
63 Minutes At precisely 01:00 on 31 October British Summer Time will, for 2010 at least, come to an end. As a result the sun will set at 16:37 and a full 63 minutes of daylight will have been lost. I want to remind the people of Brighton that come late ...
W4405
25.05.2011
John Gayer
WWW
The Church of Aesthetic Psychology. The is merely the title of an idea that came up in the mid-1980s when tele-evangelists such as Jim Bakker, Jerry Falwell and Jimmy Swaggart were active. The idea was to better people's lives through art and design. ...
The Church of Aesthetic Psychology. The is merely the title of an idea that came up in the mid-1980s when tele-evangelists such as Jim Bakker, Jerry Falwell and Jimmy Swaggart were active. The idea was to better people's lives through art and design. ...
W4291
24.05.2011
Madeleine Edberg
WWW
I have realized various installations on different current themes. The consequences of the accidents in nuclear centers from the years -50 to the present day, in Canada, France, United Kingdom, Russia, the USA, Japan... make you think: are they not pla ...
I have realized various installations on different current themes. The consequences of the accidents in nuclear centers from the years -50 to the present day, in Canada, France, United Kingdom, Russia, the USA, Japan... make you think: are they not pla ...
W3625
14.05.2011
Radical Artist Workshop (RAW) - Radical Artist Workshop
WWW
Conceived in 2007, Radical Artist Workshop (RAW) is a blog of proposed projects and fictitious/real testimonials that question notions of radicality in contemporary art. ...
Conceived in 2007, Radical Artist Workshop (RAW) is a blog of proposed projects and fictitious/real testimonials that question notions of radicality in contemporary art. ...
W3994
21.05.2011
Industry of the Ordinary
WWW
Industry of the Ordinary wish to create a portrait of Barack Obama, at this monumental time, by casting his likeness in butter and taking him home to the State Fair in Springfield, Illinois, the town where his political career was born. The Harvest ...
Industry of the Ordinary wish to create a portrait of Barack Obama, at this monumental time, by casting his likeness in butter and taking him home to the State Fair in Springfield, Illinois, the town where his political career was born. The Harvest ...
W4061
23.05.2011
andreas guibert
WWW
The King of the changing faces Photo installation ...
The King of the changing faces Photo installation ...
W4296
24.05.2011
THIS DOES NOT ADVERTISE ANYTHING AT ALL - Reynard Loki
WWW
THIS DOES NOT ADVERTISE ANYTHING AT ALL An Unrealized Project by Reynard Loki This project exists entirely as the articulation of the text of the work’s title -- “THIS DOES NOT ADVERTISE ANYTHING AT ALL” -- onto billboards and other public adv ...
THIS DOES NOT ADVERTISE ANYTHING AT ALL An Unrealized Project by Reynard Loki This project exists entirely as the articulation of the text of the work’s title -- “THIS DOES NOT ADVERTISE ANYTHING AT ALL” -- onto billboards and other public adv ...
W3840
19.05.2011
One month of picnics. - Ding Ren
WWW
What better place for art and life to intersect, interweave, and co-mingle than in food? In the making, consumption, and presentation of food. Everyone needs to eat, and there are so many politics in this necessity. When art is food and food is art, t ...
What better place for art and life to intersect, interweave, and co-mingle than in food? In the making, consumption, and presentation of food. Everyone needs to eat, and there are so many politics in this necessity. When art is food and food is art, t ...
W10838
13.12.2014
Exterminators - Fani Zguro
WWW
“Mister Dosti” is a project that originates from the literature. In 2010, the Mr. Dosti was finished, and published only in a few copies, as a volume with Albanian stories. The text itself features various types of writings such as: poetry, notes, pro ...
“Mister Dosti” is a project that originates from the literature. In 2010, the Mr. Dosti was finished, and published only in a few copies, as a volume with Albanian stories. The text itself features various types of writings such as: poetry, notes, pro ...
W4250
24.05.2011
sara stites
WWW
I started these continuous drawings on paper and would like to realize the flow of life's continuum that these represent in a space either outside or in with vast walls so that they could interact with the architecture to fulfill the concept of a never-e ...
I started these continuous drawings on paper and would like to realize the flow of life's continuum that these represent in a space either outside or in with vast walls so that they could interact with the architecture to fulfill the concept of a never-e ...
W3909
20.05.2011
Unrealised proposal for Saatchi New Sensations, 2009 - Petra Swais and Najda El-Amriti
WWW
Having worked for three years alongside one another, but never producing work collaboratively, we have come to realise the strong connection between our individual practices. The most prominent link between our works is the notion of manipulation. By mani ...
Having worked for three years alongside one another, but never producing work collaboratively, we have come to realise the strong connection between our individual practices. The most prominent link between our works is the notion of manipulation. By mani ...
W5174
26.09.2012
Somewhere at the top there's a swimming pool - Charlie Coffey
WWW
Title: Somewhere at the top there's a swimming pool (Failed Proposal For Shoreditch House) Date: 2007 Medium: Biro sketch on A4 office paper (unframed) Charlie Coffey Somewhere at the top there's a swimming pool (Failed Proposal For Shoreditch House) ...
Title: Somewhere at the top there's a swimming pool (Failed Proposal For Shoreditch House) Date: 2007 Medium: Biro sketch on A4 office paper (unframed) Charlie Coffey Somewhere at the top there's a swimming pool (Failed Proposal For Shoreditch House) ...