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.

"Free Space" - Michelangelo Pistoletto

Projekt für die Landschaft des Mont-de-Sene (Burgund) im Rahmen eines öffentlichen Auftrags des französischen Kultusministeriums - Markus Raetz

Ruderaltisch, 1994/95 Kunst am Bau - Projekt - Lois Weinberger

2 Architecture Towers - Robert Irwin

Tower Cranes, Paris  - Tadashi Kawamata

Isometric Projection - Sol Lewitt

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

The Clock - Ayse Erkmen

Messages to the Public - Nancy Spero

Untitled, modeled after the Leipzig Völkerschlachtdenkmal...  - Jenny Holzer

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
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Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W5124
18.09.2012
Leaching The Grease Out Of A Cheese Pyramid - Michael Arata
WWW
"Leaching The Grease Out Of A Cheese Pyramid" 1991-2012 The project (1991) consisted of ten pounds of white cheddar cheese carved into the shape of a stepped pyramid. The pyramid was placed on a 30 inch stack of newspapers bound together with braide ...
"Leaching The Grease Out Of A Cheese Pyramid" 1991-2012 The project (1991) consisted of ten pounds of white cheddar cheese carved into the shape of a stepped pyramid. The pyramid was placed on a 30 inch stack of newspapers bound together with braide ...
W4555
25.05.2011
UNTITED (WOVEN PORTICO) - Nicolas Feldmeyer
WWW
UNTITED (WOVEN PORTICO) Project for a site-specific installation, UCL Wilkins Building, London White fabric sheets, interwoven with the existing columns, give the portico of UCL’s Wilkins Building a temporary new monumentality. The space contained w ...
UNTITED (WOVEN PORTICO) Project for a site-specific installation, UCL Wilkins Building, London White fabric sheets, interwoven with the existing columns, give the portico of UCL’s Wilkins Building a temporary new monumentality. The space contained w ...
W10895
23.03.2015
The Great Wall Archive - The Bureau for Transgressive Tourism and the Acquisition of its Archives
WWW
The Great Wall Archive presents many potential narratives through the collection and exhibition of an excess of specific and seemingly arbitrary information. Its conception was spurred by a curiosity in the ways we communicate with one another, specifical ...
The Great Wall Archive presents many potential narratives through the collection and exhibition of an excess of specific and seemingly arbitrary information. Its conception was spurred by a curiosity in the ways we communicate with one another, specifical ...
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 ...
W5313
17.10.2012
“The Account” 2011 - Georgina Criddle
WWW
“The Account” 2011, is a detailed sketch and testimony of an unrealised installation project in a gas station in Berlin. The two pieces attempt to suspend the work in a potential space between fiction and reality. ...
“The Account” 2011, is a detailed sketch and testimony of an unrealised installation project in a gas station in Berlin. The two pieces attempt to suspend the work in a potential space between fiction and reality. ...
W5476
21.10.2012
Roberto Delgado
WWW
Berliner Künstlerprogramm/DAAD 19 Oct 2012 This is a Project Description for the unrealized Los Angeles Police Department Hollenbeck Station Public Art Project RFP. My proposal was for a number of 3’ x 7’ ceramic tile panels mounted on the CMU ...
Berliner Künstlerprogramm/DAAD 19 Oct 2012 This is a Project Description for the unrealized Los Angeles Police Department Hollenbeck Station Public Art Project RFP. My proposal was for a number of 3’ x 7’ ceramic tile panels mounted on the CMU ...
W3628
14.05.2011
Liquid and Interactive Architecture - Duda Valle
WWW
Liquid and Interactive Architecture , 15 seconds of fame - the project consists of LED lights placed in a building that will take any form by an interactive interface that will appear on the pedestrian mobile phone by calling a certain number. ...
Liquid and Interactive Architecture , 15 seconds of fame - the project consists of LED lights placed in a building that will take any form by an interactive interface that will appear on the pedestrian mobile phone by calling a certain number. ...
W3910
20.05.2011
Dutton and Swindells
WWW
A list of all the possible endings of everything that could ever end. Impossible to complete of course, in the positivity of its construction it undoes its negation and is always becoming something new. ...
A list of all the possible endings of everything that could ever end. Impossible to complete of course, in the positivity of its construction it undoes its negation and is always becoming something new. ...
W5014
30.08.2012
Spiral Cloud above Spiral Jetty. - Soren Dahlgaard
WWW
Title: Spiral Cloud above Spiral Jetty. Please find text and images attached in the same jpg document. Thank you, Soren Dahlgaard, Copenhagen. ...
Title: Spiral Cloud above Spiral Jetty. Please find text and images attached in the same jpg document. Thank you, Soren Dahlgaard, Copenhagen. ...
W4616
25.05.2011
Unrealized project no. 09: Further Development or To Be in an Endless State of Flux - Ruben Aubrecht
WWW
Unrealized project no. 09: Further Development or To Be in an Endless State of Flux The work takes up the incessant developments in social, political and scientific matters and transfers this idea of a never-ending process allegorically onto buildings ...
Unrealized project no. 09: Further Development or To Be in an Endless State of Flux The work takes up the incessant developments in social, political and scientific matters and transfers this idea of a never-ending process allegorically onto buildings ...
U9759
06.04.1997
Monument to Democracy - Kounellis
Unbuilt Roads
La scultura doveva essere posata davanti alla nuova ala del parlamento olandese di Den Haag. Sono partito dalla struttura ampia, di grande presenza, degll fumaioli che si vedevano sui tetto del vecchio parlamento. Questa strutture architectonica era diven ...
La scultura doveva essere posata davanti alla nuova ala del parlamento olandese di Den Haag. Sono partito dalla struttura ampia, di grande presenza, degll fumaioli che si vedevano sui tetto del vecchio parlamento. Questa strutture architectonica era diven ...
W4705
26.05.2011
CORONA (Socket Set) - Lisa Hein
WWW
CORONA (Socket Set) is a temporary installation for an existing pair of lanterns. The first lantern functions normally, but has a swarm of empty light sockets covering its glass. The second lantern looks burnt out because the inside of its glass panels ...
CORONA (Socket Set) is a temporary installation for an existing pair of lanterns. The first lantern functions normally, but has a swarm of empty light sockets covering its glass. The second lantern looks burnt out because the inside of its glass panels ...
W4331
24.05.2011
PROJECT FOR EXCHANGE RADICAL MOMENTS - Andrew Stooke
WWW
PROJECT FOR EXCHANGE RADICAL MOMENTS While small shops, owned by large organisations, are closed for modernisation the staff are invited to collectively participate in a free visit to the Library at Alexandria. The visit only takes place if all staff, ...
PROJECT FOR EXCHANGE RADICAL MOMENTS While small shops, owned by large organisations, are closed for modernisation the staff are invited to collectively participate in a free visit to the Library at Alexandria. The visit only takes place if all staff, ...
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 ...
W3852
19.05.2011
WILE.E.ARTIST  - Nicole Mortiboys
WWW
Two artists Chris Hodson and Nicole Mortiboys, meet every Wednesday over a period of three years, to make plans and talk about Art. They name themselves WILE.E.ARTIST (since renamed TNT) based around the cartoon character Wile.E.Coyote.They work together ...
Two artists Chris Hodson and Nicole Mortiboys, meet every Wednesday over a period of three years, to make plans and talk about Art. They name themselves WILE.E.ARTIST (since renamed TNT) based around the cartoon character Wile.E.Coyote.They work together ...
W3879
19.05.2011
SPLASH - Derek Michael Besant
WWW
Seating in the Epcore Centre for Performing Arts turns into an oil spill Client: Epcore Centre for Performing Arts / Calgary Alberta Canada Date: 1990 Central hall of new Epcore Centre designed as public seating area at base of Splash. Sculptur ...
Seating in the Epcore Centre for Performing Arts turns into an oil spill Client: Epcore Centre for Performing Arts / Calgary Alberta Canada Date: 1990 Central hall of new Epcore Centre designed as public seating area at base of Splash. Sculptur ...
W5257
12.10.2012
Unseen Connections - Andrei Sidorkin
WWW
This is a project concerning social and institutional critique both. It is the play with the problem of localization of the place where art should happen, but suddenly it appears in another place than it was expected. And also this project reveals conform ...
This is a project concerning social and institutional critique both. It is the play with the problem of localization of the place where art should happen, but suddenly it appears in another place than it was expected. And also this project reveals conform ...
W4869
09.08.2012
Round-trip - Hazem Harb
WWW
Round-trip series 2010 Harb observes a different kind of human suffering when confronted with migrant populations seeking refuge in Italy. He decided to take part in a popular migratory route from Rome to Barcelona commonly used by North African migran ...
Round-trip series 2010 Harb observes a different kind of human suffering when confronted with migrant populations seeking refuge in Italy. He decided to take part in a popular migratory route from Rome to Barcelona commonly used by North African migran ...
W3873
19.05.2011
CHINATOWN RUN - Derek Michael Besant
WWW
Project: CHINATOWN RUN Client: City of Calgary Development Dept. / Canada Date: 2010 Retrofit of elements into existing Centre Street Chinatown District of Calgary Alberta Canada. The idea was to enhance the 3 blocks along Centre Street with t ...
Project: CHINATOWN RUN Client: City of Calgary Development Dept. / Canada Date: 2010 Retrofit of elements into existing Centre Street Chinatown District of Calgary Alberta Canada. The idea was to enhance the 3 blocks along Centre Street with t ...
W3796
18.05.2011
melissa day
WWW
Oil paintings varing sizes from 2 1/2 X 3 1/2 feet Experimenting with deliberate and accidental use of paint. Pouring paint allows a natural fluid style to occur .Then going back in these shapes and contain or control these ambiguous shapes... ...
Oil paintings varing sizes from 2 1/2 X 3 1/2 feet Experimenting with deliberate and accidental use of paint. Pouring paint allows a natural fluid style to occur .Then going back in these shapes and contain or control these ambiguous shapes... ...
U9557
23.04.1997
Eislandschaft - P. Fischli und D. Weiss
Unbuilt Roads
HEIZKRAFTWERK RÖMERBRUCKE STADTWERKE SAARBROCKEN - KUNSTPROJEKT - Bauherr: Stadtwerke Saarbrücken Projekt 3: "Eislandschaft" Künstler: P. Fischli und D. Weiss, Zürich Architekten: PAS, Jourdan und Müller Lage und Baubeschreibung ...
HEIZKRAFTWERK RÖMERBRUCKE STADTWERKE SAARBROCKEN - KUNSTPROJEKT - Bauherr: Stadtwerke Saarbrücken Projekt 3: "Eislandschaft" Künstler: P. Fischli und D. Weiss, Zürich Architekten: PAS, Jourdan und Müller Lage und Baubeschreibung ...
W4576
25.05.2011
UNREALIZED PROJECT PROPOSAL - Jud Yalkut
WWW
UNREALIZED PROJECT PROPOSAL JUD YALKUT “End (Less) Loops: was a proposal offered in response to an invitation to the “Perform/Create CPT’s Earth Day/ Chernobyl/Commemoration” t the Cleveland Public Theatre in Ohio for April 25-25, 1992at a s ...
UNREALIZED PROJECT PROPOSAL JUD YALKUT “End (Less) Loops: was a proposal offered in response to an invitation to the “Perform/Create CPT’s Earth Day/ Chernobyl/Commemoration” t the Cleveland Public Theatre in Ohio for April 25-25, 1992at a s ...
W5112
16.09.2012
The Cactus Room - Javier Tapia
WWW
THE CAUCUS ROOM Project proposal for OVERGADEN By Javier Tapia The authentic moment of discovery, the breakthrough, occurs when a properly universal dimension explodes from within a particular context and becomes “for itself”, and is directly ex ...
THE CAUCUS ROOM Project proposal for OVERGADEN By Javier Tapia The authentic moment of discovery, the breakthrough, occurs when a properly universal dimension explodes from within a particular context and becomes “for itself”, and is directly ex ...
W4582
25.05.2011
Three Genetic Drifts  - David Brooks
WWW
Three Genetic Drifts wooden boardwalk, pedestrian tree (ficus benjamina or equivalent) anchored in concrete planter, crane and hoisting equipment Dimensions variable [proposal for London parking garage] Boardwalks are user-friendly infrastructures that ...
Three Genetic Drifts wooden boardwalk, pedestrian tree (ficus benjamina or equivalent) anchored in concrete planter, crane and hoisting equipment Dimensions variable [proposal for London parking garage] Boardwalks are user-friendly infrastructures that ...
W4122
23.05.2011
The Butterfly Tree - Chris Lipomi
WWW
There is a project which I have been thinking about and working on for quite some time now. Basically it is a living kinetic sculpture of a full sized tree (15/20 ft. tall), with living green tropical butterflies as the leaves. The tree itself, function ...
There is a project which I have been thinking about and working on for quite some time now. Basically it is a living kinetic sculpture of a full sized tree (15/20 ft. tall), with living green tropical butterflies as the leaves. The tree itself, function ...
W5263
13.10.2012
Brick Rushnik - Maria Gonchar
WWW
Rushnik or Rushnyk- Ukrainian embroidered decorative towel. In ancient times, the towel, embroidered with the relevant patterns, symbols, has been an inherent part of many ceremonies. For centuries it has the importance of figurative-symbolic significanc ...
Rushnik or Rushnyk- Ukrainian embroidered decorative towel. In ancient times, the towel, embroidered with the relevant patterns, symbols, has been an inherent part of many ceremonies. For centuries it has the importance of figurative-symbolic significanc ...