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.

The insurer - Fabrice Hybert

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

Unrealized Turtles 1967 - Joseph Grigely

Billboard - Jimmie Durham

Aguapracasa - Gabriel Orozco

Why New Worlds Conceived by Artists Do Not Get Built - Peter Fend

d'un projet dédié aux victimes de la Shoah. - Christian Boltanski

The World Record - General Idea

MAK - Wien  - Rosemarie Trockel

Invitation Space No.1 - Tania Mouraud

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
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Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
D10808
01.01.2003
The House of Language - Bethan Huws
DAAD
To print this phrase on a relatively large number of (bird) nest boxes – the German concrete cylinder type which are not analogous to human houses, unlike their French and British counterparts – and then to install these in an area of a forest that do ...
To print this phrase on a relatively large number of (bird) nest boxes – the German concrete cylinder type which are not analogous to human houses, unlike their French and British counterparts – and then to install these in an area of a forest that do ...
W5153
24.09.2012
Internal Painting Valuable gift - James Eisen
WWW
Among my recent Project Internal Painting Valuable gift, I examined forms of knowledge and Power, the transference of idea to object from one work to another. These works sit within a wider strategy of enacting associative thought into form. More directly ...
Among my recent Project Internal Painting Valuable gift, I examined forms of knowledge and Power, the transference of idea to object from one work to another. These works sit within a wider strategy of enacting associative thought into form. More directly ...
W4814
07.08.2012
Peace Team - Adam Uriel Ruff
WWW
W5262
13.10.2012
Seeing the Unseen - Maria Paschalidou
WWW
maria Paschalidou artist, art professor www.mariapaschalidou.com paschalmari@yahoo.com Athens, October 13, 2012 Seeing the Unseen Seeing the Unseen is an ongoing project of tracing the ‘unseen’, the most invisible and/or unobserved sites of an ...
maria Paschalidou artist, art professor www.mariapaschalidou.com paschalmari@yahoo.com Athens, October 13, 2012 Seeing the Unseen Seeing the Unseen is an ongoing project of tracing the ‘unseen’, the most invisible and/or unobserved sites of an ...
W4351
24.05.2011
R118 G223 B209 - Walter Benjamin Smith
WWW
Walter Benjamin Smith, R118 G223 B209, 2010- 2035, 40” x 68”, enamel on panel R118 G223 B209 is a billboard-like panel that color matches, at full saturation, the scaffolding surrounding the Manhattanville demolition site. This color has multi ...
Walter Benjamin Smith, R118 G223 B209, 2010- 2035, 40” x 68”, enamel on panel R118 G223 B209 is a billboard-like panel that color matches, at full saturation, the scaffolding surrounding the Manhattanville demolition site. This color has multi ...
W4708
26.05.2011
Pool Sweep - Lisa Hein
WWW
POOL SWEEP Proposal for a Polluted River 2004 A kidney-shaped pool rim floats in an eddy of the Housatonic River. The pool has no bottom; the river fills it. Inside this enclosure, an animated buoy chugs about, trailing strings of floats ...
POOL SWEEP Proposal for a Polluted River 2004 A kidney-shaped pool rim floats in an eddy of the Housatonic River. The pool has no bottom; the river fills it. Inside this enclosure, an animated buoy chugs about, trailing strings of floats ...
W5465
21.10.2012
Letters from the Earth - Joe Cantrell
WWW
a cross-generational piece that repurposes electronic waste into technologically mediated messages to future generations. Plastic comprises a vast amount of the material used to make the electronic consumer products that have become so much a part of our ...
a cross-generational piece that repurposes electronic waste into technologically mediated messages to future generations. Plastic comprises a vast amount of the material used to make the electronic consumer products that have become so much a part of our ...
W3866
19.05.2011
LABOR OF OTHERS - Donald Shambroom
WWW
The Labor of Others' is a sculptural project that places itself in the whirlpool of intellectual property rights questions. In this series the acts of conceiving and fabricating the work of art are removed from me, the artist. I have utilized, or stole ...
The Labor of Others' is a sculptural project that places itself in the whirlpool of intellectual property rights questions. In this series the acts of conceiving and fabricating the work of art are removed from me, the artist. I have utilized, or stole ...
W3824
19.05.2011
MARK PRIME
WWW
These installations are part of an ongoing series experimenting with light in 3 dimensional spaces. They are created using a high power laser, refracted in the space using mirrors. The effect is like drawing with pure light: intense, pure, random an ...
These installations are part of an ongoing series experimenting with light in 3 dimensional spaces. They are created using a high power laser, refracted in the space using mirrors. The effect is like drawing with pure light: intense, pure, random an ...
W4235
24.05.2011
STRESS - Fred Perie
WWW
STRESS is fictitious industrial construction, whose only aim is to draw a perfectly straight red line that strikes through a wide landscape on the banks of Loire river estuary. It is drawn over 2 km between an oil refinery and some isolated grove, where i ...
STRESS is fictitious industrial construction, whose only aim is to draw a perfectly straight red line that strikes through a wide landscape on the banks of Loire river estuary. It is drawn over 2 km between an oil refinery and some isolated grove, where i ...
W10927
20.06.2015
If all the waves can be saved - Yifei He
WWW
One room, one chair with endless waves. I want to put waves into one space, it will end at the middle of the space, put one chair towards the waves . People can not step twice into the same river, and people also can not meet the very same two waves. ...
One room, one chair with endless waves. I want to put waves into one space, it will end at the middle of the space, put one chair towards the waves . People can not step twice into the same river, and people also can not meet the very same two waves. ...
W10692
18.08.2014
Black Dust - Geraldine Bloch
WWW
an international exhibition about petrol and power. with big and black and gold artworks. curatorial project of Geraldine Bloch ...
an international exhibition about petrol and power. with big and black and gold artworks. curatorial project of Geraldine Bloch ...
W5127
18.09.2012
Taxonomy of Suspended Ideas - Mariangeles Soto-Diaz
WWW
Taxonomy of Suspended Ideas (Volume 1, 52) by Mariángeles Soto-Díaz (2012) "Taxonomy of Suspended Ideas" is a standalone classification system for ideas whose future will never be. The taxonomy adapts every year to accommodate the exponential growth of ...
Taxonomy of Suspended Ideas (Volume 1, 52) by Mariángeles Soto-Díaz (2012) "Taxonomy of Suspended Ideas" is a standalone classification system for ideas whose future will never be. The taxonomy adapts every year to accommodate the exponential growth of ...
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 ...
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 ...
W4377
25.05.2011
Judith Barry
WWW
Display: Museum of Signs, 1980 Installation proposal. Shopping Mall, Palo Alto, California 1980Mnemonic devices were used to transform a working-class shopping mall into a memory palace. The use of contemporary display techniques produces numerous desi ...
Display: Museum of Signs, 1980 Installation proposal. Shopping Mall, Palo Alto, California 1980Mnemonic devices were used to transform a working-class shopping mall into a memory palace. The use of contemporary display techniques produces numerous desi ...
W4245
24.05.2011
Frau Fiber
WWW
My lifeʼs work is dedicated to instigating new ways for participants to consider their engagement in the world, their purchasing power, or non-purchasing power. Transforming spaces of relaxation into spaces of physical production. Encouraging Participant ...
My lifeʼs work is dedicated to instigating new ways for participants to consider their engagement in the world, their purchasing power, or non-purchasing power. Transforming spaces of relaxation into spaces of physical production. Encouraging Participant ...
W4112
23.05.2011
“Waste Work" ("Oeuvre Déchet”)  - Alexandre Dang
WWW
“Waste Work" ("Oeuvre Déchet”) Introduction Alexandre Dang is an artist committed towards raising awareness on issues linked with sustainable development. The theme explored in the artwork titled "Waste Work" (and described hereafter) is "waste" ...
“Waste Work" ("Oeuvre Déchet”) Introduction Alexandre Dang is an artist committed towards raising awareness on issues linked with sustainable development. The theme explored in the artwork titled "Waste Work" (and described hereafter) is "waste" ...
W4828
07.08.2012
Anne Among the Living - Line Kallmayer
WWW
I intended to make a film, Anne Among The Living. I worked on it for a year and a half. We were very advanced in preproduction with many people involved, but the money could not be raised. The funders found it too experimental, too ambitious and risky. ...
I intended to make a film, Anne Among The Living. I worked on it for a year and a half. We were very advanced in preproduction with many people involved, but the money could not be raised. The funders found it too experimental, too ambitious and risky. ...
W4873
09.08.2012
Forms of Responsibility - Jenny Brown
WWW
Forms of Responsibility • Recent Projects by Jenny Brown Jenny Brown Tied (Melting Ice Sea Creatures), 2006 Video Still Variable Dimensions In early 2005, an elegant gesture of product repatriation was conceived and produced by Jenny Brown as a way of b ...
Forms of Responsibility • Recent Projects by Jenny Brown Jenny Brown Tied (Melting Ice Sea Creatures), 2006 Video Still Variable Dimensions In early 2005, an elegant gesture of product repatriation was conceived and produced by Jenny Brown as a way of b ...
W4627
25.05.2011
REMEMBERING HUMANITY - laura j padgett
WWW
REMEMBERING HUMANITY: Reflections on the Work of Bruno Taut This proposal is a visual / textual analysis of an attitude: An attitude of commitment to and belief in mankind, as a result of and despite political, social and economic conditions. BACKGROUND B ...
REMEMBERING HUMANITY: Reflections on the Work of Bruno Taut This proposal is a visual / textual analysis of an attitude: An attitude of commitment to and belief in mankind, as a result of and despite political, social and economic conditions. BACKGROUND B ...
W5347
18.10.2012
Lisa Bateman
WWW
An installation of public smell (ocean, brine, tar, old fish) -housed inside an abandoned parking shack at the site of the old Fulton Fish Market, NYC. Smell is emitted from a DMX HVAC scent through the fence and into public space. ...
An installation of public smell (ocean, brine, tar, old fish) -housed inside an abandoned parking shack at the site of the old Fulton Fish Market, NYC. Smell is emitted from a DMX HVAC scent through the fence and into public space. ...
W4538
25.05.2011
G.R. and M.F. for Le C.C.C.
WWW
Cher A.U.P., nous abordons ces côtes optiques par cette lettre intraduisible pour essayer de décrocher un peu d'argent, ou du moins poursuivre notre existence momentanée par votre lecture profane. Ayant montré un intérêt pour les projets irré ...
Cher A.U.P., nous abordons ces côtes optiques par cette lettre intraduisible pour essayer de décrocher un peu d'argent, ou du moins poursuivre notre existence momentanée par votre lecture profane. Ayant montré un intérêt pour les projets irré ...
W3497
11.05.2011
Labyrinths - Ruben Gutierrez
WWW
Life Size Mazes to be displayed in a public area. Structures where our demons can be confronted and overcome http://www.rubengutierrez.net/project/13-labyrinths ...
Life Size Mazes to be displayed in a public area. Structures where our demons can be confronted and overcome http://www.rubengutierrez.net/project/13-labyrinths ...
W3875
19.05.2011
TERRITORY: Bank parking lot mural Canada - Derek Michael Besant
WWW
Client: Bank of Nova Scotia / Canada Date: 2010 Industrial UV ink imaging applications to large-scale alucobond curtainwall sheets at second storey level attached in sections that create a narrative of: • Out-of-focus faces • Everyday objects ...
Client: Bank of Nova Scotia / Canada Date: 2010 Industrial UV ink imaging applications to large-scale alucobond curtainwall sheets at second storey level attached in sections that create a narrative of: • Out-of-focus faces • Everyday objects ...
W3783
18.05.2011
Eileen Neff
WWW
This work was originally submitted to 1.5 Million, a 2009 re-enactment of the Lucy Lippard's 1970 exhibition of the same name, when artists were invited to present ideas for work that could, but didn't necessarily exist. The work is an index size, 4"x6", ...
This work was originally submitted to 1.5 Million, a 2009 re-enactment of the Lucy Lippard's 1970 exhibition of the same name, when artists were invited to present ideas for work that could, but didn't necessarily exist. The work is an index size, 4"x6", ...