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.

Memorial - Ilya Kabakov

The insurer - Fabrice Hybert

Placid Earth: A Project for the Meeting of Millennia - Cai Guo Quiang

Merci, Thank you, Danke: Les 2 sujets  - Thomas Hirschorn

Proposal for a permanent video installation for the NYC headquarters of Sony Corporation - Dara Birnbaum

<A Public Misery Message> - Critical Art Ensemble

Chen H.V.O + G.T. - Bertrand Lavier

654 THINGS from The United States - Edward Ruscha

"400" - Manfred Pernice

Making for Art - 100 Unsucceeded Presentation - 1995, 1996,  - Yutaka Sone

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
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Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W5031
31.08.2012
If Wishes Were... - Ian Amell
WWW
"If Wishes Were..." was my proposal for a Public Realm sculpture based on the readily understood (in North America) practice at Christmas and Easter of wishing on the neck bone of the turkey eaten at these family feasts. Venice has its “Bridge of Si ...
"If Wishes Were..." was my proposal for a Public Realm sculpture based on the readily understood (in North America) practice at Christmas and Easter of wishing on the neck bone of the turkey eaten at these family feasts. Venice has its “Bridge of Si ...
W3790
18.05.2011
Bone-Grass Boy: The Secret Banks of the Conejos River (1995-2000)  - Ken Gonzales-Day
WWW
Original blurb: Bone-Grass Boy: The Secret Banks of the Conejos River (1995-2000) was a conceptually driven project that manifested itself in two ways: one, as a literary trope of the frontier novel of the late nineteenth century, and two, as a digitally ...
Original blurb: Bone-Grass Boy: The Secret Banks of the Conejos River (1995-2000) was a conceptually driven project that manifested itself in two ways: one, as a literary trope of the frontier novel of the late nineteenth century, and two, as a digitally ...
W4488
25.05.2011
Sketch railway viaduct - Katrin Korfmann
WWW
Sketch railway viaduct – Tiel, the Netherlands, 2009 The viaduct is located at the entrance of the city of Tiel. One passes it after leaving the highway and before entering the city. The viaduct shows a various mix of architecture with different styles ...
Sketch railway viaduct – Tiel, the Netherlands, 2009 The viaduct is located at the entrance of the city of Tiel. One passes it after leaving the highway and before entering the city. The viaduct shows a various mix of architecture with different styles ...
W4165
23.05.2011
Seacarus - Mark Požlep, Saša Šuštar
WWW
The project is a flying construct with an aluminium body of a catamaran and two bicycle-like-systems with pedals (run by two people), connected to two propellers. It flies on 6 helium-filled baloons (5 m diameter) each of them carrying 65 kg, all together ...
The project is a flying construct with an aluminium body of a catamaran and two bicycle-like-systems with pedals (run by two people), connected to two propellers. It flies on 6 helium-filled baloons (5 m diameter) each of them carrying 65 kg, all together ...
W4274
24.05.2011
Proposal for The Embarcadero - Kristin Jones / Andrew Ginzel
WWW
Proposal for The Embarcadero San Francisco, California 1991 ...
Proposal for The Embarcadero San Francisco, California 1991 ...
W5371
19.10.2012
GPS- and audio-guided walking tour on the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah/Nevada, USA - Sonja Hinrichsen
WWW
Project Description: This environmental arts project engages communities to participate in a 2 ½ mile GPS- and audio-guided loop-walk on the Bonneville Salt Flats near Wendover, UT. The walking tour follows 20-25 large “interest markers” sprayed on ...
Project Description: This environmental arts project engages communities to participate in a 2 ½ mile GPS- and audio-guided loop-walk on the Bonneville Salt Flats near Wendover, UT. The walking tour follows 20-25 large “interest markers” sprayed on ...
W4692
26.05.2011
Arachne - Miranda Leigh
WWW
"Arachne" 2001-present 50 x 11 x 60 inches Bull penis, Ingas wood, fulgurite, titanium, aluminum, brass, enamels, and artist's hair "Arachne" is an allegorical portrait of the intense struggle between pride and humility, courage and fear, that nearl ...
"Arachne" 2001-present 50 x 11 x 60 inches Bull penis, Ingas wood, fulgurite, titanium, aluminum, brass, enamels, and artist's hair "Arachne" is an allegorical portrait of the intense struggle between pride and humility, courage and fear, that nearl ...
W4268
24.05.2011
The Winter Garden - Kristin Jones / Andrew Ginzel
WWW
Proposal for The Winter Garden New York City 1986 ...
Proposal for The Winter Garden New York City 1986 ...
W3881
19.05.2011
Ned James & the Swifts
WWW
Proposal: Part 1. Use the artists fee to place 1000 £1 bets on the races during St Patrick’s Day. Dressed as the embodiment of St Patrick placing the bets one after another will take all day and create a performance of endurance and intrigue. T ...
Proposal: Part 1. Use the artists fee to place 1000 £1 bets on the races during St Patrick’s Day. Dressed as the embodiment of St Patrick placing the bets one after another will take all day and create a performance of endurance and intrigue. T ...
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 ...
W3748
18.05.2011
SPOT ON - John Gayer
WWW
Proposed in 2009, SPOT ON could be described as participatory pointillism. My idea was relatively simple. It involved making stamping materials (circular rubber stamps + ink/paint pads in a range of colours) available to viewers so that each could contrib ...
Proposed in 2009, SPOT ON could be described as participatory pointillism. My idea was relatively simple. It involved making stamping materials (circular rubber stamps + ink/paint pads in a range of colours) available to viewers so that each could contrib ...
W4589
25.05.2011
Joseph Moore
WWW
I hear words, half spoken words, and weeping both melodious and in staccato. Hands clap to the rhythm of music. A young man runs laps around the perimeter of the church’s large nave. There is the sound of voices that approach language albeit an incompl ...
I hear words, half spoken words, and weeping both melodious and in staccato. Hands clap to the rhythm of music. A young man runs laps around the perimeter of the church’s large nave. There is the sound of voices that approach language albeit an incompl ...
W3897
20.05.2011
Public Sculpture - Margaret Honda
WWW
"Public Sculpture" could not exist without an active public but it can exist without a strictly predetermined space and material form. Public Sculpture is a work produced by the people of Limerick and their animals. Following is text for a sign that wi ...
"Public Sculpture" could not exist without an active public but it can exist without a strictly predetermined space and material form. Public Sculpture is a work produced by the people of Limerick and their animals. Following is text for a sign that wi ...
W4303
24.05.2011
George Bataille on the LA Freeway: The Public Art Work of Luther Thie - Luther Thie
WWW
George Bataille on the LA Freeway: The Public Art Work of Luther Thie By Frederick Young What immediately strikes one about Luther Thie’s LA Interchange is the scope and magnitude of the project, a real-time memorial to automobile crash victims ...
George Bataille on the LA Freeway: The Public Art Work of Luther Thie By Frederick Young What immediately strikes one about Luther Thie’s LA Interchange is the scope and magnitude of the project, a real-time memorial to automobile crash victims ...
W4813
07.08.2012
Guerrilla Moustaches - Carolyn McKay
WWW
Unrealized Project- Guerrilla Moustaches Earlier this year I travelled from Sydney to Berlin and started a guerrilla moustache campaign on areas of graffiti and street posters. Unfortunately, many of the moustaches I had brought from Australia had lost ...
Unrealized Project- Guerrilla Moustaches Earlier this year I travelled from Sydney to Berlin and started a guerrilla moustache campaign on areas of graffiti and street posters. Unfortunately, many of the moustaches I had brought from Australia had lost ...
W4340
24.05.2011
Violin making; the neck or ‘chiver’ of the saxophone made of porcelain; will ceramic sound different? - Cristina Cambiganu
WWW
Violin making; the neck or ‘chiver’ of the saxophone made of porcelain; will ceramic sound different? The idea, which has been in my drawer of dreams for over 10 years, intend to insert a graft on the saxophone. Precisely, the project intended to r ...
Violin making; the neck or ‘chiver’ of the saxophone made of porcelain; will ceramic sound different? The idea, which has been in my drawer of dreams for over 10 years, intend to insert a graft on the saxophone. Precisely, the project intended to r ...
W4756
27.05.2011
“Collectors” Series - Soo Kim
WWW
Unfinished and ongoing project called "Collectors" -all kinds of things and creatures are collected, and create a melody and tune. Initial idea for “Collectors” series started after thinking how we miss unnoticeable things around surroundings, and th ...
Unfinished and ongoing project called "Collectors" -all kinds of things and creatures are collected, and create a melody and tune. Initial idea for “Collectors” series started after thinking how we miss unnoticeable things around surroundings, and th ...
W3478
11.05.2011
Tur Dearg (Red Tower) - Joaquin Gasgonia Palencia
WWW
Like many boys, I grew up on kings and queens, knights and castles. There is always a horse to ride, a dragon to slay, a princess to save from the evil baron, and yes, there is always the magic of the druids and the sorcerers. Despite everything that Ir ...
Like many boys, I grew up on kings and queens, knights and castles. There is always a horse to ride, a dragon to slay, a princess to save from the evil baron, and yes, there is always the magic of the druids and the sorcerers. Despite everything that Ir ...
W4663
25.05.2011
Arbeit Macht Nicht Frei (Work doens’t bring freedom)  - DARR TAH LEI
WWW
Arbeit Macht Nicht Frei (Work doens’t bring freedom) Project for an installation 4 drawings hanged on 4 walls, masses of heavy chains hanging from the ceiling. Area of room needed - minimum 40 mt2 This artwork happens with the intention to emphasize t ...
Arbeit Macht Nicht Frei (Work doens’t bring freedom) Project for an installation 4 drawings hanged on 4 walls, masses of heavy chains hanging from the ceiling. Area of room needed - minimum 40 mt2 This artwork happens with the intention to emphasize t ...
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. ...
W3906
20.05.2011
Michael Hanna
WWW
W4865
09.08.2012
Advanced Public Tenement - Heman Chong & Anthony Marcellini
WWW
Advanced Public Tenement (APT) is project examining the future of low-income public housing programs developed by governments with rising population growth, used to house guest workers, displaced residents, or recent immigrants. This project will be guide ...
Advanced Public Tenement (APT) is project examining the future of low-income public housing programs developed by governments with rising population growth, used to house guest workers, displaced residents, or recent immigrants. This project will be guide ...
W4639
25.05.2011
Steve Kado
WWW
In March 2007 I was the artist in residence at the Department of Safety in Anacortes, WA, USA. Anacortes is a really small town. Partially out of frustration with me, my big city ways & my de-skilled & "post-conceptual" approach to the art task OLIVER ORI ...
In March 2007 I was the artist in residence at the Department of Safety in Anacortes, WA, USA. Anacortes is a really small town. Partially out of frustration with me, my big city ways & my de-skilled & "post-conceptual" approach to the art task OLIVER ORI ...
W5231
08.10.2012
Trespassing - Ole Brodersen
WWW
The series “Trespassing” explores encounters between human and nature. Human-made objects are placed into a landscape, where their interactions with the natural elements are recorded. The photographer harnesses the forces of wind, currents and wave ...
The series “Trespassing” explores encounters between human and nature. Human-made objects are placed into a landscape, where their interactions with the natural elements are recorded. The photographer harnesses the forces of wind, currents and wave ...
W4903
13.08.2012
Round Table - Raoul Marek
WWW
The “freedom and democracy monument” is designed in the shape of an oversized transparent round table: People make use of the elements of that round table by their presence and help bring life into it.The round table is the symbol of the democratic id ...
The “freedom and democracy monument” is designed in the shape of an oversized transparent round table: People make use of the elements of that round table by their presence and help bring life into it.The round table is the symbol of the democratic id ...
W4995
30.08.2012
Black Fountain - Maarten Daudeij
WWW
Title: Black Fountain Artist: Maarten Daudeij (The Netherlands, Australia) Year of origination of the idea: 2010 Concept: To colour the water in the Three Rivers Fountain on Victoria Square in the middle of Adelaide, South Australia black. Theme: The ...
Title: Black Fountain Artist: Maarten Daudeij (The Netherlands, Australia) Year of origination of the idea: 2010 Concept: To colour the water in the Three Rivers Fountain on Victoria Square in the middle of Adelaide, South Australia black. Theme: The ...