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.

Attitudine Diplomatica - Hermann Pitz

Relatum (Iron Plate and Stone) - Lee Ufan

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

City Hall Tower Night Ilumination - Krysztof Wodiczko

PROPOSALl + VOORSTEL - Guillame Bijl

Der New-Babyloner - Constant

Notebook Page: Home in the Form of a Banana with Garage,  - Claes Oldenburg

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

Grand Concours International D'Architecture  - Sol Lewitt

AUSSICHTSTURM, HOLZHAUS (WOHNHAUS), SCHWIMMBECKEN, FREIE FAHRT - Maria Eichhorn

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
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Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W10596
18.10.2012
La clinique - Serge
WWW
contemporary visual art productions do create a fusion & annihilation of passions? After several filmed phone calls to selected random people, the main idea here was to build an anti-dialectical frame, so as to separate a speech of an image that are re ...
contemporary visual art productions do create a fusion & annihilation of passions? After several filmed phone calls to selected random people, the main idea here was to build an anti-dialectical frame, so as to separate a speech of an image that are re ...
W4077
23.05.2011
The Museum of Patheticness - Sadie Hennessy
WWW
A short proposal for Matt's Gallery entitled 'The Museum of Patheticness' THE MUSEUM OF PATHETICNESS It has been a long held ambition of mine to establish a Museum of Patheticness. My interest in the idea of patheticness was kindled by my sightings ...
A short proposal for Matt's Gallery entitled 'The Museum of Patheticness' THE MUSEUM OF PATHETICNESS It has been a long held ambition of mine to establish a Museum of Patheticness. My interest in the idea of patheticness was kindled by my sightings ...
W5427
20.10.2012
POINT 59 - hiramandirina
WWW
POINT 59 In July 1999, Irina Danilova with support of Arts Link CEC Partners went from New York to the only intersection of 59th Longitude and 59th latitude on land, in the Siberian woods of Ural mountains (3 other intersections sunk in the ocean ...
POINT 59 In July 1999, Irina Danilova with support of Arts Link CEC Partners went from New York to the only intersection of 59th Longitude and 59th latitude on land, in the Siberian woods of Ural mountains (3 other intersections sunk in the ocean ...
W4307
24.05.2011
The War Of The Worlds (South Africa) - James Webb
WWW
The War Of The Worlds (South Africa) I have been developing the following unrealised project: to create a radio announcement that takes Orson Welles’s infamous 1938 broadcast, “The War Of The Worlds,” as a starting point, re-imagining the concept ...
The War Of The Worlds (South Africa) I have been developing the following unrealised project: to create a radio announcement that takes Orson Welles’s infamous 1938 broadcast, “The War Of The Worlds,” as a starting point, re-imagining the concept ...
W3974
21.05.2011
CLIFF PIPES PROPOSAL - Jason de Haan
WWW
A proposal for a set of organ pipes to be mounted on the face of an oceanic cliff. The pipes are to be mounted vertically on simple steel rods that are strategically placed along a section of cliff in order to translate strong vertical updrafts into indiv ...
A proposal for a set of organ pipes to be mounted on the face of an oceanic cliff. The pipes are to be mounted vertically on simple steel rods that are strategically placed along a section of cliff in order to translate strong vertical updrafts into indiv ...
W4113
23.05.2011
Xenia Imagines - Simon Chambers
WWW
Xenia Imagines is a proposed website telling a hyperfiction of a painter who allegedly paints xenia, an early form of Roman still life. The paintings, if they do exist may be part of an imaginary collection of paintings inspired by the descriptions of Phi ...
Xenia Imagines is a proposed website telling a hyperfiction of a painter who allegedly paints xenia, an early form of Roman still life. The paintings, if they do exist may be part of an imaginary collection of paintings inspired by the descriptions of Phi ...
W4656
25.05.2011
SELF-INDULGENT NATIONS  - Silvia Pereira
WWW
SILVIA PEREIRA Public art installation to be presented in World fairs. SELF-INDULGENT NATIONS This art piece presents groups of monumental flags of all nations in public space, ripped by the simulated weather effects of erosion. The decayed look of ...
SILVIA PEREIRA Public art installation to be presented in World fairs. SELF-INDULGENT NATIONS This art piece presents groups of monumental flags of all nations in public space, ripped by the simulated weather effects of erosion. The decayed look of ...
W4634
25.05.2011
Working for the Revolution. - Romulo Banares
WWW
Working for the Revolution. This project consists in working for the Revolution, with small actions, small changes, words. All artists work in some kind of misunderstood revolution around some personal or collective utopia. Revolution is a work in prog ...
Working for the Revolution. This project consists in working for the Revolution, with small actions, small changes, words. All artists work in some kind of misunderstood revolution around some personal or collective utopia. Revolution is a work in prog ...
W4598
25.05.2011
Fitting Through A Hole - Michael Arata
WWW
Fitting Through A Hole The work allows the viewer to interpret the larger form as penetrating the hole in the lid of a five gallon paint bucket or alternately being secreted into the bucket. Michael Arata, 2004 ...
Fitting Through A Hole The work allows the viewer to interpret the larger form as penetrating the hole in the lid of a five gallon paint bucket or alternately being secreted into the bucket. Michael Arata, 2004 ...
W4882
10.08.2012
Sight Unseen - Marcy B. Freedman
WWW
SIGHT UNSEEN A proposal by Marcy B. Freedman “Message to curators: Whatever you’re doing right now, do something else next.” Roberta Smith (New York Times, February 14, 2010) THE CONCEPT: SIGHT UNSEEN is intended to challenge traditional n ...
SIGHT UNSEEN A proposal by Marcy B. Freedman “Message to curators: Whatever you’re doing right now, do something else next.” Roberta Smith (New York Times, February 14, 2010) THE CONCEPT: SIGHT UNSEEN is intended to challenge traditional n ...
W3701
17.05.2011
Taxonomy of Aborted Ideas - Mariángeles Soto-Díaz
WWW
"Taxonomy of Aborted Ideas" is both a standalone work and a classification system inspired by Jorge Luis Borges' Chinese Encyclopedia and Michel Foucault's The Order of Things. Aborted ideas are part of the topography of unrealized projects, but unlike un ...
"Taxonomy of Aborted Ideas" is both a standalone work and a classification system inspired by Jorge Luis Borges' Chinese Encyclopedia and Michel Foucault's The Order of Things. Aborted ideas are part of the topography of unrealized projects, but unlike un ...
W4300
24.05.2011
Laundry Line - zavick botha
WWW
Washing clothes and laundry lines are common day to day images of human activity throughout most of the world. Although in Western society something so ordinary now takes place behind closed doors. Some people use clothes to express their identity, in oth ...
Washing clothes and laundry lines are common day to day images of human activity throughout most of the world. Although in Western society something so ordinary now takes place behind closed doors. Some people use clothes to express their identity, in oth ...
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 ...
W4124
23.05.2011
Here/There - Matthew Slaats
WWW
Here/There Matthew Slaats Project Proposal Here/There is a virtual 3D exploration of the spatial, temporal, economic and physical relationships between environments in North and South America. Project Description Here/There aims to illustr ...
Here/There Matthew Slaats Project Proposal Here/There is a virtual 3D exploration of the spatial, temporal, economic and physical relationships between environments in North and South America. Project Description Here/There aims to illustr ...
W4676
26.05.2011
“WATER MOCCASIN SKIN” - Melanie Jamison
WWW
“WATER MOCCASIN SKIN” 2010 MELANIE JAMISON For the School of Latitudes program at Houston-based non-profit space labotanica, the artists in residence were asked to write a personal manifesto for growth. During this assignment, I came across a run-o ...
“WATER MOCCASIN SKIN” 2010 MELANIE JAMISON For the School of Latitudes program at Houston-based non-profit space labotanica, the artists in residence were asked to write a personal manifesto for growth. During this assignment, I came across a run-o ...
W10660
10.08.2014
Condensed Playground: Le Pendu femelle, "Underskirt (detail)" as Postpartum Uterus Involution - Sheridan Lowrey
WWW
A commercial metal swing set (with one swing on center) and three-row aluminum bleachers in close proximity. Swing orientation is bi-directional. The piece should include a performance reenacting the dynamics of Fragonard's The Swing, 1767, and Duchamp's ...
A commercial metal swing set (with one swing on center) and three-row aluminum bleachers in close proximity. Swing orientation is bi-directional. The piece should include a performance reenacting the dynamics of Fragonard's The Swing, 1767, and Duchamp's ...
W4878
09.08.2012
Breathless - Peter Grzybowski
WWW
Breathless Performance art by AWACS Group from 1980 - 1987 Project objective: - introduction of work by AWACS Group - AWACS and its place in history of Polish performance art - emphasizing of the political aspect of the Group's activity during the Ma ...
Breathless Performance art by AWACS Group from 1980 - 1987 Project objective: - introduction of work by AWACS Group - AWACS and its place in history of Polish performance art - emphasizing of the political aspect of the Group's activity during the Ma ...
U9769
05.02.1997
Chen H.V.O + G.T. - Bertrand Lavier
Unbuilt Roads
J'ai [illegible] de [illegible] un faux [?]drome vous l' echangeur automatic à l'etui de la ville du Hare. [Illegible] monde itait d'accord, c'ert la virou [illegible] [?]quelle cela ne it[?] pas fuit. [illegible] 5.2.97 ...
J'ai [illegible] de [illegible] un faux [?]drome vous l' echangeur automatic à l'etui de la ville du Hare. [Illegible] monde itait d'accord, c'ert la virou [illegible] [?]quelle cela ne it[?] pas fuit. [illegible] 5.2.97 ...
W4650
25.05.2011
La Fonataine  - silvia pereira
WWW
La Fonataine – Lasershot by Sílvia Pereira    Inside a museum room. A laser machine is mounted in a distance of 4 meters to the outer wall. Every thirty minutes it`s being activated and shoots its laser beam ag ...
La Fonataine – Lasershot by Sílvia Pereira    Inside a museum room. A laser machine is mounted in a distance of 4 meters to the outer wall. Every thirty minutes it`s being activated and shoots its laser beam ag ...
W3869
19.05.2011
Michal Murin
WWW
Michal Murin: Museum of Contemporary Art in My Signature, 2003 Concept: Michal Murin, 2002 Realized by: HNZL s.r.o., Bratislava, Slovakia, 2003 Realized in 3D VR by: Stanislav Veselovský, Richard Kitta, Michal Murin, 2009 ...
Michal Murin: Museum of Contemporary Art in My Signature, 2003 Concept: Michal Murin, 2002 Realized by: HNZL s.r.o., Bratislava, Slovakia, 2003 Realized in 3D VR by: Stanislav Veselovský, Richard Kitta, Michal Murin, 2009 ...
W3772
18.05.2011
Mirek Lumens Proposal 2007, Mirek Chicago Proposal 2006 - Robert Mirek
WWW
Mirek Lumens Proposal 2007 Mirek Chicago Proposal 2006 ...
Mirek Lumens Proposal 2007 Mirek Chicago Proposal 2006 ...
W4105
23.05.2011
Dazzle Study #10 an onwards     - Håvard Pedersen
WWW
Dazzle Study #10 an onwards were to be a series of abstract artwork, both site specific work and as individual sculptures, based on the theory of Dazzle Camouflage. The camouflage, credited to the English painter Norman Wilkinson, where first used during ...
Dazzle Study #10 an onwards were to be a series of abstract artwork, both site specific work and as individual sculptures, based on the theory of Dazzle Camouflage. The camouflage, credited to the English painter Norman Wilkinson, where first used during ...
W4706
26.05.2011
Subway Turnstile Sounds - Sasha Sumner
WWW
Subway Turnstile Sounds - Sasha Sumner © 2011 Imagine paying/swiping your subway card, and instead of hearing the generic beep of the NYC subway turnstile, you hear a strange or beautiful or fun sound. In a row of turnstiles, as more people go through, ...
Subway Turnstile Sounds - Sasha Sumner © 2011 Imagine paying/swiping your subway card, and instead of hearing the generic beep of the NYC subway turnstile, you hear a strange or beautiful or fun sound. In a row of turnstiles, as more people go through, ...
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. ...
W5343
18.10.2012
Unrealized project proposal for AUP  - Lito Kattou & Leontios Toumpouris
WWW
Unrealized project proposal for AUP Willing to continue investigating our relationship with natural components of the environment and expanding the development of the project in progress “Untitled dualism”, it would be a matter of great interest f ...
Unrealized project proposal for AUP Willing to continue investigating our relationship with natural components of the environment and expanding the development of the project in progress “Untitled dualism”, it would be a matter of great interest f ...
W10357
18.04.2014
After The Flood - Ingrid Mayrhofer
WWW
This project marks the last exhibition of a selection of works on paper from my past 30 years in printmaking, photography and painting. During the July 2013 storm, my basement studio was flooded, and 60 pieces of my artwork were damaged. While the water d ...
This project marks the last exhibition of a selection of works on paper from my past 30 years in printmaking, photography and painting. During the July 2013 storm, my basement studio was flooded, and 60 pieces of my artwork were damaged. While the water d ...