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.

Messages to the Public - Nancy Spero

Billboard - Jimmie Durham

Square Depression - Bruce Nauman

A House of Dust - Alison Knowles

CIVITAS Stadtpostkarten - Lothar Baumgarten

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

PROPOSALl + VOORSTEL - Guillame Bijl

654 THINGS from The United States - Edward Ruscha

Grand Concours International D'Architecture  - Mahe Gilles

NON REALIZED PROJECTS - Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
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Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W4074
23.05.2011
@Maarten141BOXES: Bilingual Digital Interactive Internet Artwork in Progress (Artist: Maarten van der Heijden, 1947) - Maarten van der Heijden (@Maarten141BOXES)
WWW
@Maarten141BOXES: Bilingual Digital Interactive Internet Artwork in Progress (Artist: Maarten van der Heijden, 1947) Introduction @Maarten141BOXES is a Bilingual Digital Interactive Internet Artwork in Progress. It is an egodocument: an autobiographi ...
@Maarten141BOXES: Bilingual Digital Interactive Internet Artwork in Progress (Artist: Maarten van der Heijden, 1947) Introduction @Maarten141BOXES is a Bilingual Digital Interactive Internet Artwork in Progress. It is an egodocument: an autobiographi ...
W4590
25.05.2011
Feniksi - Feniksi
WWW
From: Feniksi Re: The Artist’s Heart for Art-Historians, Curators and Art-Critics A Quitting Proposal This proposal has derived from a fond desire to quit being an artist. It has been for some time ...
From: Feniksi Re: The Artist’s Heart for Art-Historians, Curators and Art-Critics A Quitting Proposal This proposal has derived from a fond desire to quit being an artist. It has been for some time ...
W4249
24.05.2011
Experiment 11 (Scheme for ensuring posterity) - Aylwin Greenwood-Lambert
WWW
Introduction to Experiment 11 (Scheme for ensuring posterity) Experiment 11 was a project based around the idea of attempting to ensure my posterity via the production of time capsules containing evidence that would give those discovering them the impr ...
Introduction to Experiment 11 (Scheme for ensuring posterity) Experiment 11 was a project based around the idea of attempting to ensure my posterity via the production of time capsules containing evidence that would give those discovering them the impr ...
W4225
24.05.2011
Climbing the Devil's table / the Daredevil - Romain Sein
WWW
Climbing the Devil's table / the Daredevil (approximatively traduced from french) Climbing the Devil's table is an unrealized project but it's not unrealizable. «The Teufelstisch», the devil table, is a spectacular sandstone from the region of ...
Climbing the Devil's table / the Daredevil (approximatively traduced from french) Climbing the Devil's table is an unrealized project but it's not unrealizable. «The Teufelstisch», the devil table, is a spectacular sandstone from the region of ...
W5444
20.10.2012
The Ghost Room - Veronika Gorelik
WWW
27 crates 6 tones of amber--13000 pounds 10 years to construct baroque music-bach It is around 8 evening--precisely when all black tie art and social events start around a metropolitan city. Not unlike any of these type of events -many people gather ...
27 crates 6 tones of amber--13000 pounds 10 years to construct baroque music-bach It is around 8 evening--precisely when all black tie art and social events start around a metropolitan city. Not unlike any of these type of events -many people gather ...
W4545
25.05.2011
Missing/Vermisst/Scomparso  - Matteo Peterlini
WWW
Missing/Vermisst/Scomparso Abstract This work is intended as an analysis and a representation of the psychosocial aspects raised by the phenomenon of missing people in contemporary cities. The question guiding my project entails the nature of the miss ...
Missing/Vermisst/Scomparso Abstract This work is intended as an analysis and a representation of the psychosocial aspects raised by the phenomenon of missing people in contemporary cities. The question guiding my project entails the nature of the miss ...
W5247
10.10.2012
Iain McPherson
WWW
Project: Create art work for a series of bus shelters (P-Stops) in Perm, Russia. Work must be strong enough to compete with graffiti. One panel (not shown) was accepted for the project. The last email I had said that this had been delayed to due fin ...
Project: Create art work for a series of bus shelters (P-Stops) in Perm, Russia. Work must be strong enough to compete with graffiti. One panel (not shown) was accepted for the project. The last email I had said that this had been delayed to due fin ...
W4528
25.05.2011
The World Exhibition - Karl Kilian
WWW
The World Exhibition – A project by Karl Kilian General information The first time there will be an exhibition all over the world. The project combines the internet and the real world, space and place, the artworld and the world population. For this ...
The World Exhibition – A project by Karl Kilian General information The first time there will be an exhibition all over the world. The project combines the internet and the real world, space and place, the artworld and the world population. For this ...
W4673
26.05.2011
A room with a view - amalia caputo
WWW
A room with a view”, 2011 By Amalia Caputo BRIEF DESCRIPTION “A room with a view” is a project for an installation/temporary or permanent exhibition that deals with the physical inversion as an interaction/ direct experience with general pub ...
A room with a view”, 2011 By Amalia Caputo BRIEF DESCRIPTION “A room with a view” is a project for an installation/temporary or permanent exhibition that deals with the physical inversion as an interaction/ direct experience with general pub ...
W5115
17.09.2012
Eine Ontologie des Paradies - Juan Fernando
WWW
Eine Ontologie des Paradies: die Kunst als Illusion. "Was verstehe ich unter Natur? Unter Natur verstehe ich, das erste innere Prinzip, des Seins eines Dinges. (...) Das ist was wirklich existiert". -„Kritik der reinen Vernunft“. Immanuel Kant ...
Eine Ontologie des Paradies: die Kunst als Illusion. "Was verstehe ich unter Natur? Unter Natur verstehe ich, das erste innere Prinzip, des Seins eines Dinges. (...) Das ist was wirklich existiert". -„Kritik der reinen Vernunft“. Immanuel Kant ...
W3682
16.05.2011
Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson
WWW
Two Barges is a proposal for a pair of illuminated signs to be ferried around the island of Manhattan using the Hudson, Harlem and East Rivers.   The signs will be made from panels of tungsten lightbulbs fixed to a supporting metal rig.   The letters wi ...
Two Barges is a proposal for a pair of illuminated signs to be ferried around the island of Manhattan using the Hudson, Harlem and East Rivers.   The signs will be made from panels of tungsten lightbulbs fixed to a supporting metal rig.   The letters wi ...
W4792
13.06.2011
No Flag Long Enough - Santiago Pinyol
WWW
NO FLAG LONG ENOUGH Flags are not meant to touch the floor, everybody knows that. Flags are meant to be weaved, to be watched, to preside. The intervention proposed to bring the flags down from their vertical order into the horizontal one, connecti ...
NO FLAG LONG ENOUGH Flags are not meant to touch the floor, everybody knows that. Flags are meant to be weaved, to be watched, to preside. The intervention proposed to bring the flags down from their vertical order into the horizontal one, connecti ...
W3769
18.05.2011
The Twitstat Project - Renee Zepeda and Chris Weige
WWW
The Twitstat Project exists as a collaborative book of poetry, which we envisioned to be the script for a film. It involves a young Japanese-American woman, a middle-aged German-American man, and a young Jewish-American woman. ...
The Twitstat Project exists as a collaborative book of poetry, which we envisioned to be the script for a film. It involves a young Japanese-American woman, a middle-aged German-American man, and a young Jewish-American woman. ...
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 ...
W4477
25.05.2011
"Qu et Ho pt l Zone" - Jim Ricks
WWW
"Qu et Ho pt l Zone" Proposed public piece by Jim Ricks To be located in the River Fergus, Ennis, Co. Clare. Supported by the Clare County Council. ...
"Qu et Ho pt l Zone" Proposed public piece by Jim Ricks To be located in the River Fergus, Ennis, Co. Clare. Supported by the Clare County Council. ...
W5051
03.09.2012
Forest Museum - Taller Basico de Arquitectura [TBA]
WWW
Forest Museum (2010) A forest inside another forest The museum floor learns from the characteristic concentricity of a tree trunk. As the different stages of its life, it contains the museum spaces: reception, temporary and permanent exhibitions... ...
Forest Museum (2010) A forest inside another forest The museum floor learns from the characteristic concentricity of a tree trunk. As the different stages of its life, it contains the museum spaces: reception, temporary and permanent exhibitions... ...
W4259
24.05.2011
Why leave the shelter? - Arcady Kotler
WWW
Why leave the shelter? (The Tale of the construction of my shell) I don’t even remember when construction of the shelter started, but it happened somehow unnoticeably. When I was young it was nothing like a fortress, but just big opened space with e ...
Why leave the shelter? (The Tale of the construction of my shell) I don’t even remember when construction of the shelter started, but it happened somehow unnoticeably. When I was young it was nothing like a fortress, but just big opened space with e ...
W5210
05.10.2012
The Ringer (What Every Tower Needs) - Zoe Mackler
WWW
Project Proposal In Brief -­ The Ringer (What Every Tower Needs) This work address the complex feelings of displacement and disconnect experienced by the Glasgow School of Art and the surrounding community during campus redevelopment. Honoring the ideals ...
Project Proposal In Brief -­ The Ringer (What Every Tower Needs) This work address the complex feelings of displacement and disconnect experienced by the Glasgow School of Art and the surrounding community during campus redevelopment. Honoring the ideals ...
W3733
18.05.2011
“Veil” - Felippe Moraes
WWW
“Veil” The intervention, in the simulations proposed for “Teatro Colón” in Peru and “Paço das Artes” in São Paulo - Brazil, works by placing 3 fog machines in the top of the specific building. These machines produce smoke that are than c ...
“Veil” The intervention, in the simulations proposed for “Teatro Colón” in Peru and “Paço das Artes” in São Paulo - Brazil, works by placing 3 fog machines in the top of the specific building. These machines produce smoke that are than c ...
W4412
25.05.2011
The Room102 Collective  - Room102 (Eleni Frudaraki & Juan Caicedo)
WWW
The Room102 Collective is a recently formed art collective currently in the pursue of finding what bonds it together conceptually. In it take part at the moment: Eleni Froudaraki * 1984 in Crete, Greece. She studied painting and sculpture in Athens School ...
The Room102 Collective is a recently formed art collective currently in the pursue of finding what bonds it together conceptually. In it take part at the moment: Eleni Froudaraki * 1984 in Crete, Greece. She studied painting and sculpture in Athens School ...
W4573
25.05.2011
Emily Puthoff
WWW
W5271
14.10.2012
Amanda Karlsson, Anton Bergendahl
WWW
During the fall of 2012, the swedish artist Amanda Karlsson and the swedish musician Anton Bergendahl has been working on a collaboration between music and art. They both grew up in small swedish cities with a strong desire towards something bigger... ...
During the fall of 2012, the swedish artist Amanda Karlsson and the swedish musician Anton Bergendahl has been working on a collaboration between music and art. They both grew up in small swedish cities with a strong desire towards something bigger... ...
W5384
20.10.2012
The EXTRA MUROS project - Amina Menia
WWW
The EXTRA MUROS project (2005 – ongoing) This project is an ongoing series of urban installations in the city of Algiers where I revisit legendary places, landmark venues, urban gaps. My interventions crystallize in a space not in an artwork. The ...
The EXTRA MUROS project (2005 – ongoing) This project is an ongoing series of urban installations in the city of Algiers where I revisit legendary places, landmark venues, urban gaps. My interventions crystallize in a space not in an artwork. The ...
W4296
24.05.2011
THIS DOES NOT ADVERTISE ANYTHING AT ALL - Reynard Loki
WWW
THIS DOES NOT ADVERTISE ANYTHING AT ALL An Unrealized Project by Reynard Loki This project exists entirely as the articulation of the text of the work’s title -- “THIS DOES NOT ADVERTISE ANYTHING AT ALL” -- onto billboards and other public adv ...
THIS DOES NOT ADVERTISE ANYTHING AT ALL An Unrealized Project by Reynard Loki This project exists entirely as the articulation of the text of the work’s title -- “THIS DOES NOT ADVERTISE ANYTHING AT ALL” -- onto billboards and other public adv ...
W4567
25.05.2011
Eduardo Villanueva & Jose Davila
WWW
A Remake of a film scenario interaction. ...
A Remake of a film scenario interaction. ...
W10481
28.04.2014
The Geese of Feliferhof - Esther Shalev-Gerz with Jochen Gerz
WWW
Graz, Austria In 1996, Esther Shalev-Gerz and Jochen Gerz won an international competition launched by the Austrian government to pay tribute to those who opposed the Nazi regime. The artists proposed installing four white flags carrying red inscriptio ...
Graz, Austria In 1996, Esther Shalev-Gerz and Jochen Gerz won an international competition launched by the Austrian government to pay tribute to those who opposed the Nazi regime. The artists proposed installing four white flags carrying red inscriptio ...