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.

Electronic Theater - Laurie Anderson

Grand Concours International D'Architecture  - Sol Lewitt

Eight Days a Week - Joe Scanlan

Ceinture - Huang Ping Yong

Douglas Gordon - 5 year drive-by; proposal for a public artwork.

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

Notebook Page: Home in the Form of a Banana with Garage,  - Claes Oldenburg

den anonymen Tod ausstellen - Gregor Schneider

Visual Poem: Cap I Cua - Joan Brossa

The World is a Theater and we each have a role - Louise Bourgeois

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
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Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W5455
20.10.2012
For beauty sake - Mirna Arsovska
WWW
2007 Idea The work is planed to be an interactive video animation, set in the gallery or on a window of the gallery. Video is scene with the birds freely resting on the branches on a tree in the landscape. AUDIO: ... sound of their “talk” .. ...
2007 Idea The work is planed to be an interactive video animation, set in the gallery or on a window of the gallery. Video is scene with the birds freely resting on the branches on a tree in the landscape. AUDIO: ... sound of their “talk” .. ...
W4507
25.05.2011
Second nature – A dystopian view into virtual farming - Aditi Ruiz
WWW
Second nature – A dystopian view into virtual farming There are 80 million urban farmers across the world, but they are farming virtually through social networks. What does this imply for the future of the farm? How is this reshaping our perception o ...
Second nature – A dystopian view into virtual farming There are 80 million urban farmers across the world, but they are farming virtually through social networks. What does this imply for the future of the farm? How is this reshaping our perception o ...
W3893
20.05.2011
The Divina Commedia triptych - Javier Toro Blum
WWW
The Divina Commedia triptych is a sculpture project, consisting in three ovoid metal cast pieces. Each piece has engraved in low relief (1.5mm) one part of the Dante Alighieri's Divina Commedia: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. ...
The Divina Commedia triptych is a sculpture project, consisting in three ovoid metal cast pieces. Each piece has engraved in low relief (1.5mm) one part of the Dante Alighieri's Divina Commedia: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. ...
W4814
07.08.2012
Peace Team - Adam Uriel Ruff
WWW
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 ...
W4703
26.05.2011
Sterling Crispin
WWW
My project involves a globally connected network of participants wearing EEG brain-computer interfaces. By displaying the average of thousands of live readings back to the participants their minds will slowly become closer to the average. Emerging brai ...
My project involves a globally connected network of participants wearing EEG brain-computer interfaces. By displaying the average of thousands of live readings back to the participants their minds will slowly become closer to the average. Emerging brai ...
W4690
26.05.2011
instant coffee artist collective
WWW
Instant Coffee is a service oriented collective of artists, curator and designers based in Vancouver and Toronto. Its frequent practice is to build architectural installations, which become venues for a series of organized events from formal lectures and ...
Instant Coffee is a service oriented collective of artists, curator and designers based in Vancouver and Toronto. Its frequent practice is to build architectural installations, which become venues for a series of organized events from formal lectures and ...
W5358
19.10.2012
Tweetwalk Marathon - Alban Low
WWW
The Olympics are outdated and not suited to our modern lives. We need a new breed of sports to prepare our children for the rigors of multitasking in a social media astute world. Join us on the first ever tweetwalk marathon. Warm those fingers and thumbs ...
The Olympics are outdated and not suited to our modern lives. We need a new breed of sports to prepare our children for the rigors of multitasking in a social media astute world. Join us on the first ever tweetwalk marathon. Warm those fingers and thumbs ...
W3590
13.05.2011
IN-OUTDOOR PROJECT - Helena Trindade
WWW
Unrealized Public Art Project For images and text please refer to the PDF ...
Unrealized Public Art Project For images and text please refer to the PDF ...
W3637
14.05.2011
lemeh42
WWW
Here are a couple of my two new illustrations. ...
Here are a couple of my two new illustrations. ...
W3639
14.05.2011
lynn hershman Leeson
WWW
This project develops a series of clothing that repels surveillance systems, reflects environments and renders users invisible. ...
This project develops a series of clothing that repels surveillance systems, reflects environments and renders users invisible. ...
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 ...
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 ...
W4284
24.05.2011
Mr. Imagination’s Arch of Unity - Mr. Imagination (Gregory Warmack)
WWW
Mr. Imagination (Gregory Warmack) Mr. Imagination’s Arch of Unity 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 The su ...
Mr. Imagination (Gregory Warmack) Mr. Imagination’s Arch of Unity 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 The su ...
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. ...
W10475
27.04.2014
Archive of Forgotten Ideas - Cecilia Guida and 42 contributors
WWW
Sometimes we have ideas that we like but for rational, emotional or practical reasons we think they won’t work out or we aren’t able to develop them at that moment. Consequently we keep them apart, “hide” them somewhere in a peripheral and little ...
Sometimes we have ideas that we like but for rational, emotional or practical reasons we think they won’t work out or we aren’t able to develop them at that moment. Consequently we keep them apart, “hide” them somewhere in a peripheral and little ...
W3481
11.05.2011
Experiments In Organza - Helen Maher
WWW
Press release. Helen maher. ‘Experiments In Organza’ Textile Sculptor, living & working in London. Current project, ‘Experiments in Organza’, investigates the interaction between Primary Elements- Solids, Liquids & Gases & Secondary Elem ...
Press release. Helen maher. ‘Experiments In Organza’ Textile Sculptor, living & working in London. Current project, ‘Experiments in Organza’, investigates the interaction between Primary Elements- Solids, Liquids & Gases & Secondary Elem ...
U9887
01.01.1995
MODELL OF AN OFFICE FOR A COUPLE OF TWINS, BOTH 1,38 TALL" - Tobias Rehrenberg
Unbuilt Roads
WOOD, PLASTIC, 2 CHAIRS ca 180 x 150 x 170 cm PIECE OF THE SHOW "CANCELLED PROJECTS" IN MUSEUM FRIEDERICIANUM KASSEL SUMMER 95 Previous Publications (?) NO Existing Documents (photos, drawings, models): ENCLOSED ...
WOOD, PLASTIC, 2 CHAIRS ca 180 x 150 x 170 cm PIECE OF THE SHOW "CANCELLED PROJECTS" IN MUSEUM FRIEDERICIANUM KASSEL SUMMER 95 Previous Publications (?) NO Existing Documents (photos, drawings, models): ENCLOSED ...
W4142
23.05.2011
Get Carter - Cornford & Cross
WWW
Get Carter 1997 We proposed to install a fully operational prison door into the entrance of the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. All other doors and windows into the gallery space were to be closed and sealed. The prison door was to ...
Get Carter 1997 We proposed to install a fully operational prison door into the entrance of the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. All other doors and windows into the gallery space were to be closed and sealed. The prison door was to ...
W4101
23.05.2011
« CREPUSCULE MATINALE »  - RAFFAELLA DELLA OLGA
WWW
« Crepuscule Matinale - homage to Erik Satie » is a project where the ventilation ducts of the Georges Pompidou Centre forecourt receive a makeover and put on an act of playing Furniture Music, the brain child of Erik Satie between 1917 and 1923. By eq ...
« Crepuscule Matinale - homage to Erik Satie » is a project where the ventilation ducts of the Georges Pompidou Centre forecourt receive a makeover and put on an act of playing Furniture Music, the brain child of Erik Satie between 1917 and 1923. By eq ...
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 ...
W5470
21.10.2012
Idiot Savante: Subversive Failure  - Andrea Liu
WWW
The notion of an "idiot savant" is someone who is simultaneously above and below normative standards of competence, imbuing them with a sublime uselessness. Their virtuoso (savant) cannot be instrumentalized by the rest of society for productive ends, be ...
The notion of an "idiot savant" is someone who is simultaneously above and below normative standards of competence, imbuing them with a sublime uselessness. Their virtuoso (savant) cannot be instrumentalized by the rest of society for productive ends, be ...
W4272
24.05.2011
Kristin Jones / Andrew Ginzel
WWW
Proposals for Hudson River Park New York 1997 ...
Proposals for Hudson River Park New York 1997 ...
W4084
23.05.2011
"After the Council"  - Hunter/Lassal
WWW
"After the Council" (2006) is a playful reflection upon power and adornment on one level, as well as resources and recycling on another. ...
"After the Council" (2006) is a playful reflection upon power and adornment on one level, as well as resources and recycling on another. ...
W4962
21.08.2012
Erehaag (double row) - Art Van Triest
WWW
interactive double row (dutch: erehaag) http://youtu.be/zocvP7KFWmE ...
interactive double row (dutch: erehaag) http://youtu.be/zocvP7KFWmE ...
W4572
25.05.2011
My Sunshine - Nikola Uzunovski
WWW
My Sunshine is a utopian project, suspended between art and science, visionary ideas and social issues, poetry and hyper - technology. Its aim is to produce a flying object that reflects sunlight to a specific area of Earth and appear as the Sun itself. ...
My Sunshine is a utopian project, suspended between art and science, visionary ideas and social issues, poetry and hyper - technology. Its aim is to produce a flying object that reflects sunlight to a specific area of Earth and appear as the Sun itself. ...