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.

Tower Cranes, Paris  - Tadashi Kawamata

Unbetitelt, Gänse-Projekt + Noch unbetitelt , " Durch den Mund sehen " + Kartoffeln  - Carsten Holler

Grand Concours International D'Architecture  - Mahe Gilles

A FAIRLY TALL TOWER, 48,000 Miles High -  - Siah Armajani

Attitudine Diplomatica - Hermann Pitz

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

The lmprobable Flow - Larry Bell

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

Der New-Babyloner - Constant

"Free Space" - Michelangelo Pistoletto

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
#
Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W4530
25.05.2011
Star Museum in Sharjah by A12 - A12 Star Museum in Sharjah
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 ...
W3486
11.05.2011
There is a major problem in Australia
WWW
TWO IMAGES OF WHAT I CALL THE ENDLESS CHARACTER OF A NATURE FULL OF NATIVES. I DONT THINK THIS WILL OR COULD BE EVER FINISHED BECAUSE TO ME THEY WERE BORN BY THE TIME THEY DIED. SO THEY REMAIN A PHOTOGRAPH THAT NEED A STILL LIFE SHOT. ...
TWO IMAGES OF WHAT I CALL THE ENDLESS CHARACTER OF A NATURE FULL OF NATIVES. I DONT THINK THIS WILL OR COULD BE EVER FINISHED BECAUSE TO ME THEY WERE BORN BY THE TIME THEY DIED. SO THEY REMAIN A PHOTOGRAPH THAT NEED A STILL LIFE SHOT. ...
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 ...
W4393
25.05.2011
Ground Control - Sylvia Schwenk
WWW
SYLVIA SCHWENK PROJECT CONCEPT STATEMENT Ground Control is a work of participatory performance art that will be presented in two stages. The first stage will be a live performance that will take place at night-time by everyday-people-cum-performers ...
SYLVIA SCHWENK PROJECT CONCEPT STATEMENT Ground Control is a work of participatory performance art that will be presented in two stages. The first stage will be a live performance that will take place at night-time by everyday-people-cum-performers ...
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 ...
W5375
19.10.2012
Trail Blazing Awesomeness: A submission to create an interactive hiking experience - K. Alex Johnson
WWW
A submission to create an interactive hiking experience ...
A submission to create an interactive hiking experience ...
W4783
05.06.2011
The Manual  - Najda EL-Amriti
WWW
Title: 3 Years (The Manual) Date: 2009 Medium: Hard bound book In march 2009, the final year of my degree, the point at which important decisions needed to be made as to what to do, where to go and how to do it...I began writing. A reversion back to. ...
Title: 3 Years (The Manual) Date: 2009 Medium: Hard bound book In march 2009, the final year of my degree, the point at which important decisions needed to be made as to what to do, where to go and how to do it...I began writing. A reversion back to. ...
W10641
18.07.2014
The Last of All Maladies - Galería Perdida
WWW
We have produced a typeface (TrueType font) to redirect the character usage in language. Such as it is, each letter is supplanted by a non-sequitur phrase turning the original copy unintelligible, yet repositioned as concrete poetry. Thus, each piece of w ...
We have produced a typeface (TrueType font) to redirect the character usage in language. Such as it is, each letter is supplanted by a non-sequitur phrase turning the original copy unintelligible, yet repositioned as concrete poetry. Thus, each piece of w ...
W4445
25.05.2011
THE MODERN VERSION OF NOAH’S ARK - Birgitte Katborg Laursen
WWW
THE MODERN VERSION OF NOAH’S ARK In 2003-2005, ÖO’K Aquatic Structures AB (www.ook.se) designed a technologically advanced, sustainable houseboat prototype. The superstructure of the houseboat was designed in collaboration with the engineering f ...
THE MODERN VERSION OF NOAH’S ARK In 2003-2005, ÖO’K Aquatic Structures AB (www.ook.se) designed a technologically advanced, sustainable houseboat prototype. The superstructure of the houseboat was designed in collaboration with the engineering f ...
W5380
19.10.2012
Caution! Work in Progress - Geraldo Zamproni
WWW
Caution! Work in Progress Rack or plastic folding board with vibrant yellow tone is a warning message that awakens the immediate interest of the observer in conferring closely with looking at what is happening. ...
Caution! Work in Progress Rack or plastic folding board with vibrant yellow tone is a warning message that awakens the immediate interest of the observer in conferring closely with looking at what is happening. ...
U9290
01.01.1997
d'un projet dédié aux victimes de la Shoah. - Christian Boltanski
Unbuilt Roads
Il y a quelques années, j'ai éte invité à réfléchir à la réalisation d'un projet dédié aux victimes de la Shoah. Ce monument devait être installé en face du Reichstag à Berlin. J'avais répondu alors que je pensais que les monuments étaient ...
Il y a quelques années, j'ai éte invité à réfléchir à la réalisation d'un projet dédié aux victimes de la Shoah. Ce monument devait être installé en face du Reichstag à Berlin. J'avais répondu alors que je pensais que les monuments étaient ...
W10172
18.06.2014
Chicago Torture Justice Memorials' Project - Anja Christine Ross
WWW
The title of "Chicago Torture Justice Memorials' Project" is concerned with my suggestion building up a kind of wall with holes. In these holes you might add photographs of this prison-archives. In my mind I found another idea that this wall has a signatu ...
The title of "Chicago Torture Justice Memorials' Project" is concerned with my suggestion building up a kind of wall with holes. In these holes you might add photographs of this prison-archives. In my mind I found another idea that this wall has a signatu ...
W5082
07.09.2012
The sign that would attract people to an empty area.  - Annika Eriksson
WWW
The sign that would attract people to an empty area. For the show When Attitudes Become Form Become Attitudes at Wattis Institute in San Francisco this year I wanted to place an illuminated sign in the vast empty lot just behind the institution, a l ...
The sign that would attract people to an empty area. For the show When Attitudes Become Form Become Attitudes at Wattis Institute in San Francisco this year I wanted to place an illuminated sign in the vast empty lot just behind the institution, a l ...
W4242
24.05.2011
HUMAN CONTACT EXERCISE #1 - Annabelle Craven-Jones
WWW
HUMAN CONTACT EXERCISE #1 Online digital text 2010 ongoing This project is an experiment exploring unknown limits. It exists as an online instruction in the minds of a potentially unlimited number of participants. Who they are and how they will ...
HUMAN CONTACT EXERCISE #1 Online digital text 2010 ongoing This project is an experiment exploring unknown limits. It exists as an online instruction in the minds of a potentially unlimited number of participants. Who they are and how they will ...
W4780
03.06.2011
Emily Lockren
WWW
I have attached one collage and one edited image of unrealized artwork based around the idea of my paintings displayed on a bookshelf with only the edges visible like the spines of books. I envisioned a library of paintings, but never had the rescources t ...
I have attached one collage and one edited image of unrealized artwork based around the idea of my paintings displayed on a bookshelf with only the edges visible like the spines of books. I envisioned a library of paintings, but never had the rescources t ...
W4964
21.08.2012
Art Van Triest
WWW
no pics jet no youtube jet what I want to do is basically mechanically (physically) recreate a known (digitally modelled) scene from a actionfilm. the scene has a bullet that slowly splashes through a wall or glass or something like that.... ...
no pics jet no youtube jet what I want to do is basically mechanically (physically) recreate a known (digitally modelled) scene from a actionfilm. the scene has a bullet that slowly splashes through a wall or glass or something like that.... ...
U9263
01.01.1974
CIVITAS Stadtpostkarten - Lothar Baumgarten
Unbuilt Roads
Einige Überlegungen zur Emblematik von Ansichtskarten. Abgebildete Sehenswürdigkeiten gelangen auf Ansichtskarten durch die häufig gewählte Zentralperspektive in die Nähe ausgestellter Backwaren. Die siegelhaft stilisierte Heraldik, eines immer wiede ...
Einige Überlegungen zur Emblematik von Ansichtskarten. Abgebildete Sehenswürdigkeiten gelangen auf Ansichtskarten durch die häufig gewählte Zentralperspektive in die Nähe ausgestellter Backwaren. Die siegelhaft stilisierte Heraldik, eines immer wiede ...
W5255
11.10.2012
Michael Schippling
WWW
The proposal is to increase the information content (entropy) of Shannon's original Information Theory paper by shredding and re-compacting it: http://www.etantdonnes.com/proposal/Conceptual%20Information%20Piece.html ...
The proposal is to increase the information content (entropy) of Shannon's original Information Theory paper by shredding and re-compacting it: http://www.etantdonnes.com/proposal/Conceptual%20Information%20Piece.html ...
W3984
21.05.2011
Erin Leland
WWW
My professor photographed me when I was younger and later gave me 3,000 out of a group of 10,000 pictures for my own use. When he died without a will, his two sons found our printed images scattered in the home and the digital images in a number of hard d ...
My professor photographed me when I was younger and later gave me 3,000 out of a group of 10,000 pictures for my own use. When he died without a will, his two sons found our printed images scattered in the home and the digital images in a number of hard d ...
W3526
11.05.2011
T h e S o l a r E n e r g y F i e l d - Michael Jantzen
WWW
T h e S o l a r E n e r g y F i e l d Michael Jantzen © 2010 www.michaeljantzen.com ​My design inspiration for this alternative energy producing sculpture in the desert, comes from a conceptual symbolic representation of the micro energe ...
T h e S o l a r E n e r g y F i e l d Michael Jantzen © 2010 www.michaeljantzen.com ​My design inspiration for this alternative energy producing sculpture in the desert, comes from a conceptual symbolic representation of the micro energe ...
W4918
16.08.2012
Elections are a Con ("Wahlen sind Betrug") - Oliver Ressler
WWW
“Elections are a Con” ("Wahlen sind Betrug"), series of posters to be displayed in Innsbruck (Austria); unrealized due to censorship by the provincial government of Tyrol, 2011 “Elections are a Con” – Censorship by the provincial government ...
“Elections are a Con” ("Wahlen sind Betrug"), series of posters to be displayed in Innsbruck (Austria); unrealized due to censorship by the provincial government of Tyrol, 2011 “Elections are a Con” – Censorship by the provincial government ...
W5057
03.09.2012
Sheltered Apartments in Buztintxuri  - Taller Basico de Arquitectura [TBA]
WWW
Sheltered Apartments in Buztintxuri (2009) We understand the site as an opportunity to inhabit a space that ends in a dividing wall, and so, an uncompleted space. From this wall, we build a bone that links the existing buildings with the new project an ...
Sheltered Apartments in Buztintxuri (2009) We understand the site as an opportunity to inhabit a space that ends in a dividing wall, and so, an uncompleted space. From this wall, we build a bone that links the existing buildings with the new project an ...
W4233
24.05.2011
Elise Lammer
WWW
This work is an homage to the lost artwork by John Baldessari "Untitled (after Palm Tree (for Charlemagne)" 1975. This unrealized project aims to collect similar postcards as the ones displayed in Peter Kirby's documentary and recreate Baldessari's lost ...
This work is an homage to the lost artwork by John Baldessari "Untitled (after Palm Tree (for Charlemagne)" 1975. This unrealized project aims to collect similar postcards as the ones displayed in Peter Kirby's documentary and recreate Baldessari's lost ...
W5174
26.09.2012
Somewhere at the top there's a swimming pool - Charlie Coffey
WWW
Title: Somewhere at the top there's a swimming pool (Failed Proposal For Shoreditch House) Date: 2007 Medium: Biro sketch on A4 office paper (unframed) Charlie Coffey Somewhere at the top there's a swimming pool (Failed Proposal For Shoreditch House) ...
Title: Somewhere at the top there's a swimming pool (Failed Proposal For Shoreditch House) Date: 2007 Medium: Biro sketch on A4 office paper (unframed) Charlie Coffey Somewhere at the top there's a swimming pool (Failed Proposal For Shoreditch House) ...
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 ...
W4495
25.05.2011
The Crystal Pavilion - Walker and Walker
WWW
The project The Crystal Pavilion is to construct Wassili Luckhardt’s Cult Building from1920. This unrealized project exists only as a drawing and was made by Luckhardt when he was a member of the Crystal Chain group. The Glass Chain or Crystal Chain s ...
The project The Crystal Pavilion is to construct Wassili Luckhardt’s Cult Building from1920. This unrealized project exists only as a drawing and was made by Luckhardt when he was a member of the Crystal Chain group. The Glass Chain or Crystal Chain s ...