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.

Eislandschaft - P. Fischli und D. Weiss

Aguapracasa - Gabriel Orozco

Unrealized Turtles 1967 - Joseph Grigely

Project for the Initiative Mahnmal Homosexuellenverfolgung, Frankfurt  - Jeff Wall

CIVITAS Stadtpostkarten - Lothar Baumgarten

La Guerra De Los Simbolos - Victor Grippo

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

PROJEKT - Ulrich Rückreim

Grand Concours International D'Architecture  - Mahe Gilles

Catwalk - Sylive Fleury

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
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Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W4090
23.05.2011
Wrong Satelite Information News  - Stefano W. Pasquini
WWW
This is a series of a project titled "UNREALIZEABLE PROJECTS 1994-2015" that I started in 1994 out of the frustration of not being able to realize some of the installation I wanted to make, out of lack of funds. At the time fundraising in art was not some ...
This is a series of a project titled "UNREALIZEABLE PROJECTS 1994-2015" that I started in 1994 out of the frustration of not being able to realize some of the installation I wanted to make, out of lack of funds. At the time fundraising in art was not some ...
W3547
12.05.2011
Morality - Peter Dickinson
WWW
An interactive painting installation titled Morality The project is outlined at this link and a pdf with instructions on how morality would be managed can also be found on this page. http://www.peter-dickinson.co.uk/Morality.html ...
An interactive painting installation titled Morality The project is outlined at this link and a pdf with instructions on how morality would be managed can also be found on this page. http://www.peter-dickinson.co.uk/Morality.html ...
W3929
20.05.2011
AN ENTROPIC LINE BECOMES HOLONIC SPRAY  - Jane Boyer
WWW
AN ENTROPIC LINE BECOMES HOLONIC SPRAY (Highlights from my notes on the subject) Jane Boyer © 2011 Contrary to Mondrian’s idea of the immutable as expressed by two parallel lines, I see them as a perfectly ripe relationship for transference and ...
AN ENTROPIC LINE BECOMES HOLONIC SPRAY (Highlights from my notes on the subject) Jane Boyer © 2011 Contrary to Mondrian’s idea of the immutable as expressed by two parallel lines, I see them as a perfectly ripe relationship for transference and ...
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” .. ...
W3549
12.05.2011
Portrait of a village in contemporary art - Eugen Alupopanu
WWW
My project proposal was "Portrait of a village in contemporary art" in which I wanted to use typical means of photography as document and translate them into visual art language, namely painting. In short, I wanted to photograph all the people in the vill ...
My project proposal was "Portrait of a village in contemporary art" in which I wanted to use typical means of photography as document and translate them into visual art language, namely painting. In short, I wanted to photograph all the people in the vill ...
W4544
25.05.2011
BOOTSCHAFT - Sabine Kacunko
WWW
BOOTSCHAFT germ-(cell) F2 Medieninstallation National Center for Performing Arts (NCPA) BOOTSCHAFT germ-(cell) F2 Konzept BOOTSCHAFT ist ein multimedial und global angelegtes Projekt, das Objekte im öffent- lichen Raum mit einem besonderen kulturellen od ...
BOOTSCHAFT germ-(cell) F2 Medieninstallation National Center for Performing Arts (NCPA) BOOTSCHAFT germ-(cell) F2 Konzept BOOTSCHAFT ist ein multimedial und global angelegtes Projekt, das Objekte im öffent- lichen Raum mit einem besonderen kulturellen od ...
W5089
10.09.2012
Tal Ram On
WWW
Tal Ram On Resume Tal Ran On was born and raised in Kibutz Zikim, following graduation from one of Israeli finest army units, he went and studied film making. Between the years 1995 to 2005, Tal was filming and directing documentaries movies. At 2005, ...
Tal Ram On Resume Tal Ran On was born and raised in Kibutz Zikim, following graduation from one of Israeli finest army units, he went and studied film making. Between the years 1995 to 2005, Tal was filming and directing documentaries movies. At 2005, ...
W10660
10.08.2014
Condensed Playground: Le Pendu femelle, "Underskirt (detail)" as Postpartum Uterus Involution - Sheridan Lowrey
WWW
A commercial metal swing set (with one swing on center) and three-row aluminum bleachers in close proximity. Swing orientation is bi-directional. The piece should include a performance reenacting the dynamics of Fragonard's The Swing, 1767, and Duchamp's ...
A commercial metal swing set (with one swing on center) and three-row aluminum bleachers in close proximity. Swing orientation is bi-directional. The piece should include a performance reenacting the dynamics of Fragonard's The Swing, 1767, and Duchamp's ...
W4514
25.05.2011
Margarethe Müller
WWW
This is a project for a school. The idea was to give a small village on their own to the students, situated beside the small village named Charmey in the mountains of french Switzerland. The elementary students have their classrooms inside the plateau, th ...
This is a project for a school. The idea was to give a small village on their own to the students, situated beside the small village named Charmey in the mountains of french Switzerland. The elementary students have their classrooms inside the plateau, th ...
W3696
16.05.2011
Man thrown from his environment torned
pick up his mess
rhea his route
rolling in his fate - Alicia Larraín
WWW
The concept of this Art installation is to emphasize the segmentation or boundary as a subtle , ambiguous limit, which divides areas, confining people, separating them in the world they inhabit.  Allowing them to free themselves from their imprisonmen ...
The concept of this Art installation is to emphasize the segmentation or boundary as a subtle , ambiguous limit, which divides areas, confining people, separating them in the world they inhabit.  Allowing them to free themselves from their imprisonmen ...
W4357
25.05.2011
Dead Links In The Weak Universalism - Kevin Day
WWW
Kevin Day Dead Links In The Weak Universalism, Boris Groys, expanding on Agamben‟s „messianic knowledge,‟ argues that time, with the exacerbation of technological progress, has been increasingly contracting, shrinking to microscopic intervals.1 ...
Kevin Day Dead Links In The Weak Universalism, Boris Groys, expanding on Agamben‟s „messianic knowledge,‟ argues that time, with the exacerbation of technological progress, has been increasingly contracting, shrinking to microscopic intervals.1 ...
W3705
17.05.2011
PA(E/S)SAGGIO - beatrice crastini
WWW
Project to next Documenta-Kassel, at the moment nobody have contact me. It's on the utopia of the cohabitation by Franco Rotelli, historic successor by Franco Basaglia father of the psychiatric revolution Beauty is a need, the ugliness makes it ugly. ...
Project to next Documenta-Kassel, at the moment nobody have contact me. It's on the utopia of the cohabitation by Franco Rotelli, historic successor by Franco Basaglia father of the psychiatric revolution Beauty is a need, the ugliness makes it ugly. ...
W3502
11.05.2011
Reproductions - David Groot
WWW
Reproductions, apart from being a substitute for a genuine experience, may protect the vulnerable original for all too impudent eyes and inappropriate curiosity. In "Re-production" this idea is taken literally; the slide projector projects a photographic ...
Reproductions, apart from being a substitute for a genuine experience, may protect the vulnerable original for all too impudent eyes and inappropriate curiosity. In "Re-production" this idea is taken literally; the slide projector projects a photographic ...
W5037
01.09.2012
Cultivating the Field of the Absurd - Barbara Nemitz
WWW
Title: " Cultivating the Field of the Absurd" The work is to be made in the landscape. In an open part with a large plain - some shrubberies and trees may be around - an extensive embroidery is to be seen on the ground. It is made out of silky shimmer ...
Title: " Cultivating the Field of the Absurd" The work is to be made in the landscape. In an open part with a large plain - some shrubberies and trees may be around - an extensive embroidery is to be seen on the ground. It is made out of silky shimmer ...
W4326
24.05.2011
Becoming a Tree - Malin Stahl
WWW
Malin Ståhl: Becoming a Tree Inside of me there is a wish to Become a Tree, to stand very still and serenely let my my branches wave in the wind. I made my first attempt at Becoming a Tree in 1999 shielding my naked body with the bark of a spruce tree ...
Malin Ståhl: Becoming a Tree Inside of me there is a wish to Become a Tree, to stand very still and serenely let my my branches wave in the wind. I made my first attempt at Becoming a Tree in 1999 shielding my naked body with the bark of a spruce tree ...
W10263
18.06.2014
Blue Spiral - Miklos Legrady
WWW
An urban transformation painting the smokestacks of downtown Toronto. ...
An urban transformation painting the smokestacks of downtown Toronto. ...
W4954
20.08.2012
Urban scape sketch - Marta Fuster Barutell
WWW
Urban scape sketch by Marta Fuster Barutell Site-specific installation composed of a variable amount of boxes. Each box is fabricated with welded 100mm square tube steel to the scale of one cubic metre per box. Opposing faces of the cube should ha ...
Urban scape sketch by Marta Fuster Barutell Site-specific installation composed of a variable amount of boxes. Each box is fabricated with welded 100mm square tube steel to the scale of one cubic metre per box. Opposing faces of the cube should ha ...
W3915
20.05.2011
Gorica Orsholits
WWW
This is one of my first projects where I tried to reflect on my personal emotional state towards the war in Bosnia (1992-1995), and the notion of constantly “living between two wars" experiences by many generations born in the turmoil Balkan region. ...
This is one of my first projects where I tried to reflect on my personal emotional state towards the war in Bosnia (1992-1995), and the notion of constantly “living between two wars" experiences by many generations born in the turmoil Balkan region. ...
W5170
26.09.2012
Jessica Li
WWW
An online database of all the words I know and all the words I think I know along with their respective pronunciations, definitions, and usages. This collection would house all words in all the languages I think I know and be organized by the chronologica ...
An online database of all the words I know and all the words I think I know along with their respective pronunciations, definitions, and usages. This collection would house all words in all the languages I think I know and be organized by the chronologica ...
W4621
25.05.2011
Projekt Atlantik - Maria Dundakova
WWW
Projekt Atlantik- Song, Ebbe und Flut Rhytmen Klangrealisation und Wirkung Vorbereitung: Dokumentare Atlantikwellenklang Materialausarbeitung Während 30 Tagen am Morgen vor Sonnenaufgang habe ich Ebbe und Flut Wellengeräusche an der Brasilianischen Küs ...
Projekt Atlantik- Song, Ebbe und Flut Rhytmen Klangrealisation und Wirkung Vorbereitung: Dokumentare Atlantikwellenklang Materialausarbeitung Während 30 Tagen am Morgen vor Sonnenaufgang habe ich Ebbe und Flut Wellengeräusche an der Brasilianischen Küs ...
W4636
25.05.2011
C.Q - Ioanna Pantazopoulou
WWW
C.Q., 2010 honey jars, cosmetic containers, lipsticks, glue, mirror C.Q. is a maquette study for a fantastical monument, a ‘Disney Palace on acid’, a tribute to Beauty. It is an arrangement of cosmetics that are used as pigments to add tones to ...
C.Q., 2010 honey jars, cosmetic containers, lipsticks, glue, mirror C.Q. is a maquette study for a fantastical monument, a ‘Disney Palace on acid’, a tribute to Beauty. It is an arrangement of cosmetics that are used as pigments to add tones to ...
W4273
24.05.2011
Hector Zamora
WWW
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 ...
W3738
18.05.2011
The Body - Felippe Moraes
WWW
“The Body” is an installation in which a 1,80m x 0,5m pile of salt rests over a rustic wooden table. This work brings the discussion of the presence of an almost immaterial and spiritual body evoked by the size and by the symbolic character ...
“The Body” is an installation in which a 1,80m x 0,5m pile of salt rests over a rustic wooden table. This work brings the discussion of the presence of an almost immaterial and spiritual body evoked by the size and by the symbolic character ...
W4524
25.05.2011
Star Museum in Sharjah - Star Museum in Sharjah by A12
WWW
Star Museum in Sharjah by A12 Our proposal for Sharjah Art Foundation Production Programme was to build a temporary pavilion to host the first stage of the Star Museum, a travelling museum dedicated to the stars. The stars in this museum are not inten ...
Star Museum in Sharjah by A12 Our proposal for Sharjah Art Foundation Production Programme was to build a temporary pavilion to host the first stage of the Star Museum, a travelling museum dedicated to the stars. The stars in this museum are not inten ...
W5489
26.10.2012
The Greatest Show on Earth is Leaving - Sascha Pohflepp
WWW
The Greatest Show on Earth is Leaving 3000 helium-filled balloons are held in place form the column-like vertical plume that resembles the one found just after the launch of a space rocket. After being released, the column dissipates under the influenc ...
The Greatest Show on Earth is Leaving 3000 helium-filled balloons are held in place form the column-like vertical plume that resembles the one found just after the launch of a space rocket. After being released, the column dissipates under the influenc ...