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.

Time Magazine Cover - Robert Rauschenberg

Brücke Wein-Kanal Arch. Hermann Czech, Wein - Franz West

A FAIRLY TALL TOWER, 48,000 Miles High -  - Siah Armajani

WATERWORKS - Mona Hatoum

Proposal for a permanent video installation for the NYC headquarters of Sony Corporation - Dara Birnbaum

Uncompleted 1966 - and on  - John Armleder

Tulips for Amsterdam - Isa Genzken

Battery Park City - Per Kirkeby

Monumento all'agricoltura 1969-70 - Alighiero Boetti

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

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
#
Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W4685
26.05.2011
Artist Statement  - barbara greene mann
WWW
Artist Statement These drawings are a new series about the ladies who shopped and shopped and lost their heads. Their necks were used as a periscope.and finally someone said, Put your money where your mouth is. Voila they became known as the Purse Heads. ...
Artist Statement These drawings are a new series about the ladies who shopped and shopped and lost their heads. Their necks were used as a periscope.and finally someone said, Put your money where your mouth is. Voila they became known as the Purse Heads. ...
W4788
09.06.2011
Summer Resort - Andrea Kalinova
WWW
summer resort 2009 Video 5´7´´/ photos 10x15 cm, documents Greek island of Lesbos belongs among the major input “gates” for refugees from Asia to Western Europe. Distance between Turkey and Greece is here just 10 nautical miles. During my stay ...
summer resort 2009 Video 5´7´´/ photos 10x15 cm, documents Greek island of Lesbos belongs among the major input “gates” for refugees from Asia to Western Europe. Distance between Turkey and Greece is here just 10 nautical miles. During my stay ...
W4134
23.05.2011
The Order of Reflections - Jerzy Olek
WWW
Jerzy Olek The Order of Reflections In former centuries in order to transpose a view onto a piece of paper draughtsmen used a frames screen divided into square sections. They observed the view through their perspective machine, and built their pictu ...
Jerzy Olek The Order of Reflections In former centuries in order to transpose a view onto a piece of paper draughtsmen used a frames screen divided into square sections. They observed the view through their perspective machine, and built their pictu ...
W5272
14.10.2012
The Impossible Collection, Radio-made, and Vertical Reading - Georgi Gospodinov
WWW
Georgi Gospodinov 3 projects The Impossible Collection A gallery. Eight absolutely empty glass cubes (window displays) closed from each side, just with captions beneath, in the following order: apples – shrivel, rot cheese – begins to smell bad clouds ...
Georgi Gospodinov 3 projects The Impossible Collection A gallery. Eight absolutely empty glass cubes (window displays) closed from each side, just with captions beneath, in the following order: apples – shrivel, rot cheese – begins to smell bad clouds ...
W4713
26.05.2011
CHROMA - spmb [Eduardo Aquino & Karen Shanski]
WWW
CHROMA [2011] was a proposal by spmb for a permanent public art project for the Mount Dennis Neighbourhood in Toronto, Canada. It is derived from the neighbourhood’s desire to signify one entrance into Mount Dennis through art, more specifically marking ...
CHROMA [2011] was a proposal by spmb for a permanent public art project for the Mount Dennis Neighbourhood in Toronto, Canada. It is derived from the neighbourhood’s desire to signify one entrance into Mount Dennis through art, more specifically marking ...
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 ...
U9690
01.01.1995
Untitled, modeled after the Leipzig Völkerschlachtdenkmal...  - Jenny Holzer
Unbuilt Roads
Title of the project: Untitled, modeled after the Leipzig Völkerschlachtdenkmal, a lazer projection of Lustmord texts onto a 1913 Battle of nations Monument. (100yr in Leipzig, Germany anniversary of 1813 battle) Description: Jenny s ...
Title of the project: Untitled, modeled after the Leipzig Völkerschlachtdenkmal, a lazer projection of Lustmord texts onto a 1913 Battle of nations Monument. (100yr in Leipzig, Germany anniversary of 1813 battle) Description: Jenny s ...
W3632
14.05.2011
(model for) REMOTE CONTROLLED STARS or HOW TO CHANGE YOUR DESTINY - Mary Sherman
WWW
Once someone came up to the oh-so dandy J. McNeil Whistler and exclaimed that they were both from Lowell and just a year apart – he was 68; Whistler, 67. To which Whistler replied - for all to hear, of course - “Very charming! And so you are 68 and we ...
Once someone came up to the oh-so dandy J. McNeil Whistler and exclaimed that they were both from Lowell and just a year apart – he was 68; Whistler, 67. To which Whistler replied - for all to hear, of course - “Very charming! And so you are 68 and we ...
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 ...
W4728
26.05.2011
Unfinished projects of avoidance - Andrew Spackman
WWW
Title: Unfinished projects of avoidance Image:P1020494.JPG 100 clocks/100 batteries in polystyrene packaging. Image: P1020451.JPG Unfinished turntable Statement Objects of deliberate ‘avoidance’. Counter intuitive processes are employe ...
Title: Unfinished projects of avoidance Image:P1020494.JPG 100 clocks/100 batteries in polystyrene packaging. Image: P1020451.JPG Unfinished turntable Statement Objects of deliberate ‘avoidance’. Counter intuitive processes are employe ...
W4241
24.05.2011
Atsunobu KOHIRA
WWW
Le projet que je propose est une installation sonore dans un paysage naturel qui reprend le fonctionnement d’une horloge. Le jour commence et finit par la cloche de l’église, ou le temple qui indique les horaires tous les jours dans la vie quoti ...
Le projet que je propose est une installation sonore dans un paysage naturel qui reprend le fonctionnement d’une horloge. Le jour commence et finit par la cloche de l’église, ou le temple qui indique les horaires tous les jours dans la vie quoti ...
W4087
23.05.2011
Apartamentul / Infobox for Bucharest - mona vatamanu & florin tudor
WWW
Apartamentul / Infobox for Bucharest This architectural space was thought as a place where the memory of the city should had been activated through different initiatives and projects. The need to link our present, our memory with our recent past led us ...
Apartamentul / Infobox for Bucharest This architectural space was thought as a place where the memory of the city should had been activated through different initiatives and projects. The need to link our present, our memory with our recent past led us ...
W4352
25.05.2011
Palitos/Sticks  - Yanina Moroni
WWW
Palitos/Sticks Descripción / Description La obra es una instalación, disposición de diversos objetos en el espacio y el tiempo. Es una Estructura modular reubicable y/o adaptable, conformada por Módulos, pequeñas obras, partes de la obra genera ...
Palitos/Sticks Descripción / Description La obra es una instalación, disposición de diversos objetos en el espacio y el tiempo. Es una Estructura modular reubicable y/o adaptable, conformada por Módulos, pequeñas obras, partes de la obra genera ...
W3624
14.05.2011
Steve Rosenthal
WWW
Unrealized project from March 2008. The proposal was made to Acantia Health and Beauty Ltd, seeking sponsorship in the form of 6000 bars of Coal Tar Soap to realize the construction of a 'Yellow Brick Road' for my final degree show. Please see text (i ...
Unrealized project from March 2008. The proposal was made to Acantia Health and Beauty Ltd, seeking sponsorship in the form of 6000 bars of Coal Tar Soap to realize the construction of a 'Yellow Brick Road' for my final degree show. Please see text (i ...
W4266
24.05.2011
M86 - Samuel Levack and Jennifer Lewandowski
WWW
A Proposal – M86 As the end of the year is culled, we invite a fresh adventure. A journey, to the heart of the UK landscape. A journey, through the blood metaphor. We propose: a one-week road trip in which we will visit the site of all 86 of the se ...
A Proposal – M86 As the end of the year is culled, we invite a fresh adventure. A journey, to the heart of the UK landscape. A journey, through the blood metaphor. We propose: a one-week road trip in which we will visit the site of all 86 of the se ...
W4611
25.05.2011
Prototype of an opportunistic monument or a monument on call - Sylvie Boisseau
WWW
Prototype of an opportunistic monument or a monument on call (in memory of the Stasi* victims) The monument consist of an orthogonal concrete block of 200 x 150 x 50 cm which is embedded under the ground, It should be erected at places where the orig ...
Prototype of an opportunistic monument or a monument on call (in memory of the Stasi* victims) The monument consist of an orthogonal concrete block of 200 x 150 x 50 cm which is embedded under the ground, It should be erected at places where the orig ...
W4650
25.05.2011
La Fonataine  - silvia pereira
WWW
La Fonataine – Lasershot by Sílvia Pereira    Inside a museum room. A laser machine is mounted in a distance of 4 meters to the outer wall. Every thirty minutes it`s being activated and shoots its laser beam ag ...
La Fonataine – Lasershot by Sílvia Pereira    Inside a museum room. A laser machine is mounted in a distance of 4 meters to the outer wall. Every thirty minutes it`s being activated and shoots its laser beam ag ...
W4388
25.05.2011
THIS ISA NICE NEIGHBORHOOD - MARTINEZ PETROPOULOS WHITE
WWW
THIS ISA NICE NEIGHBORHOOD Moscone Center/Howard Street Project, San Francisco, CA 1991 Located two blocks south of Market Street, the site is the space between two Convention Centers – six lanes of traffic, with two sets of three lane bus and taxi ...
THIS ISA NICE NEIGHBORHOOD Moscone Center/Howard Street Project, San Francisco, CA 1991 Located two blocks south of Market Street, the site is the space between two Convention Centers – six lanes of traffic, with two sets of three lane bus and taxi ...
W5066
04.09.2012
Icelandic Elements - Alexander Zaklynsky
WWW
Curatorial Statement : Icelandic Elements - 4 Directions in Icelandic Painting Iceland o!ers the Artist an environment of extreme elements. "ese Elements indelibly imprint their impression. "e four Artists in this Exhibition represent these undercurrents ...
Curatorial Statement : Icelandic Elements - 4 Directions in Icelandic Painting Iceland o!ers the Artist an environment of extreme elements. "ese Elements indelibly imprint their impression. "e four Artists in this Exhibition represent these undercurrents ...
W5294
16.10.2012
Western Gateway to Iowa - Andrew Leicester
WWW
Western Gateway to Iowa – The Energy State Iowa is the largest US producer of corn which is increasing devoted to ethanol production. Iowa is also a leader in wind power generation especially in the western edges of the state. Iowa’s most famous ...
Western Gateway to Iowa – The Energy State Iowa is the largest US producer of corn which is increasing devoted to ethanol production. Iowa is also a leader in wind power generation especially in the western edges of the state. Iowa’s most famous ...
W4656
25.05.2011
SELF-INDULGENT NATIONS  - Silvia Pereira
WWW
SILVIA PEREIRA Public art installation to be presented in World fairs. SELF-INDULGENT NATIONS This art piece presents groups of monumental flags of all nations in public space, ripped by the simulated weather effects of erosion. The decayed look of ...
SILVIA PEREIRA Public art installation to be presented in World fairs. SELF-INDULGENT NATIONS This art piece presents groups of monumental flags of all nations in public space, ripped by the simulated weather effects of erosion. The decayed look of ...
U9833
01.01.1977
Square Depression - Bruce Nauman
Unbuilt Roads
Geplanter Standort: Naturwissenschaftliches Zentrum der Westfälischen Wilhelmsuniversität, Münster Material: Betonguß Maße: Tiefe 2,30 m, Breite 25,0 m, Länge 25,0 m Note The piece is a rhomboid square depres­sion with the p ...
Geplanter Standort: Naturwissenschaftliches Zentrum der Westfälischen Wilhelmsuniversität, Münster Material: Betonguß Maße: Tiefe 2,30 m, Breite 25,0 m, Länge 25,0 m Note The piece is a rhomboid square depres­sion with the p ...
W4487
25.05.2011
lori brown
WWW
The wificommune is a retro-fitted environmentally sustainable bus providing social services for the Seneca Nation communities in Upstate New York. Using solar power as a source of energy, this bus is designed to provide internet connections, a classroom ...
The wificommune is a retro-fitted environmentally sustainable bus providing social services for the Seneca Nation communities in Upstate New York. Using solar power as a source of energy, this bus is designed to provide internet connections, a classroom ...
W4170
24.05.2011
BASIC STRATEGIES - Ana Sucena, Claudia Costa, Pedro Guerra
WWW
BASIC STRATEGIES Our project aims the recognition of how natural, historic, and community cycles work, and uses these aspects to emphasize our design and the technical solutions we have chosen. The house is positioned on the lot in a way that allows e ...
BASIC STRATEGIES Our project aims the recognition of how natural, historic, and community cycles work, and uses these aspects to emphasize our design and the technical solutions we have chosen. The house is positioned on the lot in a way that allows e ...
W3623
14.05.2011
Structure for Formal and Material Imagination - Scott Massey
WWW
Travel to another dimension has long held our fascination. From Alice’s tentative leap down the rabbit hole, Wade Davis’ experients with the worlds psychotropic flora, or teleporting from the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, exploration of alternat ...
Travel to another dimension has long held our fascination. From Alice’s tentative leap down the rabbit hole, Wade Davis’ experients with the worlds psychotropic flora, or teleporting from the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, exploration of alternat ...
W5392
20.10.2012
Pieterjan Grandry
WWW
Absence stimulates the need for completion and the design of these ideas is what makes the intangible absent concrete. Talking about absence in an urban spot (the incomplete tower of Antwerp’s cathedral), one might think of utopia. Utopia is the non-pla ...
Absence stimulates the need for completion and the design of these ideas is what makes the intangible absent concrete. Talking about absence in an urban spot (the incomplete tower of Antwerp’s cathedral), one might think of utopia. Utopia is the non-pla ...