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.

Ruderaltisch, 1994/95 Kunst am Bau - Projekt - Lois Weinberger

La Guerra De Los Simbolos - Victor Grippo

MODELL OF AN OFFICE FOR A COUPLE OF TWINS, BOTH 1,38 TALL" - Tobias Rehrenberg

119. PROJET DE DESTRUCTION DU MUSEE 1970 - 1971 - Jef Geys

Memorial - Ilya Kabakov

The lmprobable Flow - Larry Bell

Just Before Dawn - David Lamelas

My House - Uri Tzaig

Relatum (Iron Plate and Stone) - Lee Ufan

Dog Jaw Monument - A Futurist Tele-introject - Leon Golub

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
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Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
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 ...
W5063
04.09.2012
TheStore - Tine Wilde
WWW
TheStore: The Construct of a Life Package. Proposal for Arhus Kunstbygning 2011. The exhibition space is piled with boxes, containing (fragments of) works of art, gathered around a wooden framework. The visitor is invited to fill up the framework with ...
TheStore: The Construct of a Life Package. Proposal for Arhus Kunstbygning 2011. The exhibition space is piled with boxes, containing (fragments of) works of art, gathered around a wooden framework. The visitor is invited to fill up the framework with ...
W3509
11.05.2011
I gave you this picture because I was afraid you might forget me - Yvonne O'Reilly
WWW
CORNERHOUSE MICRO COMMISSIONS - (a site specific proposal) 'I gave you this picture because I was afraid you might forget me.' About your idea: What is your idea? The location – the CORNERHOUSE would provide me with the opportunity to create a ...
CORNERHOUSE MICRO COMMISSIONS - (a site specific proposal) 'I gave you this picture because I was afraid you might forget me.' About your idea: What is your idea? The location – the CORNERHOUSE would provide me with the opportunity to create a ...
W4230
24.05.2011
Monument for bridges. - Dico Kruijsse
WWW
Monument for bridges. Visuals of a monumental sculpture to be made out of the remains of two countryside bridges. A road of about 20 kilometres long was rebuild. Therefore as much as 50 bridges accessing the farmlands where taken apart and demolished. ...
Monument for bridges. Visuals of a monumental sculpture to be made out of the remains of two countryside bridges. A road of about 20 kilometres long was rebuild. Therefore as much as 50 bridges accessing the farmlands where taken apart and demolished. ...
W3938
20.05.2011
LETTER OF INTEREST for “Art Mediator” - Verina Gfader
WWW
The attached letter bears witness to a mail exchange following the Manifesta 8 (in the region of Murcia, Spain) announcement and job vacancies within education there. The proposal tries to create a space of uncertainty for the Manifesta organisers. ...
The attached letter bears witness to a mail exchange following the Manifesta 8 (in the region of Murcia, Spain) announcement and job vacancies within education there. The proposal tries to create a space of uncertainty for the Manifesta organisers. ...
W3752
18.05.2011
Proposal for an Art-Science cooperation for solar lighting a Lebanese village - roula sorour
WWW
My project was a proposal to light up a village in Lebanon using solar power in cooperation with a local University. My proposal was hurried and could have been written better. I never did receive a reply to my proposal. From: Roula Sorour <r@roula ...
My project was a proposal to light up a village in Lebanon using solar power in cooperation with a local University. My proposal was hurried and could have been written better. I never did receive a reply to my proposal. From: Roula Sorour <r@roula ...
W3543
12.05.2011
L'art mis à nu par ses artistes, même... Rifiuto della Creazione / Everything has been done, so why do „everything” ? - Gregor Rozanski
WWW
working title and object(s) as complex game of meanings. this is a meeting of ideas of two rebels form different backgrounds - artist Marcel Duchamp and theoretican and activist Antonio Negri. Negri and Duchamp have one the same opinion that is be ...
working title and object(s) as complex game of meanings. this is a meeting of ideas of two rebels form different backgrounds - artist Marcel Duchamp and theoretican and activist Antonio Negri. Negri and Duchamp have one the same opinion that is be ...
W5364
19.10.2012
Ongoing Meeting Between Reality and Memory - Na'ama Zussman
WWW
Unrealized Project : This work offers an Ongoing Meeting Between Reality and Memory, onto anyone can reflects and projects himself, as his dimensions of presentation – past , present, future and time, and therefore creates sustainable relations betwe ...
Unrealized Project : This work offers an Ongoing Meeting Between Reality and Memory, onto anyone can reflects and projects himself, as his dimensions of presentation – past , present, future and time, and therefore creates sustainable relations betwe ...
W4902
12.08.2012
City of Fountains - A. Bitterman
WWW
City of Fountains proposes an exchange between the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and Kansas City's east side neighborhoods in an effort to disrupt and reposition geographies of race and privilege. ...
City of Fountains proposes an exchange between the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and Kansas City's east side neighborhoods in an effort to disrupt and reposition geographies of race and privilege. ...
W4048
22.05.2011
NESTED VOIDS: LA GROTTE DU MAS D’AZIL - Bradley Pitts
WWW
Unrealized Proposal for NESTED VOIDS: LA GROTTE DU MAS D’AZIL
 Bradley Pitts, 2010 The cave of Le Mas-d'Azil (la grotte du Mas d'Azil), FR, was one of the first prehistoric caves to yield evidence of human habitation. Its main feature is a 500-met ...
Unrealized Proposal for NESTED VOIDS: LA GROTTE DU MAS D’AZIL
 Bradley Pitts, 2010 The cave of Le Mas-d'Azil (la grotte du Mas d'Azil), FR, was one of the first prehistoric caves to yield evidence of human habitation. Its main feature is a 500-met ...
W10296
01.01.2010
Industrial Park - Héctor Zamora
WWW
Industrial Park was proposed for 'Touched' the 6th Liverpool Biennial, 2010 Proposed to take place in the Liverpool docks area where new developments are replacing the old port and industry buildings, it is a large scale permanent intervention based on ...
Industrial Park was proposed for 'Touched' the 6th Liverpool Biennial, 2010 Proposed to take place in the Liverpool docks area where new developments are replacing the old port and industry buildings, it is a large scale permanent intervention based on ...
W4172
24.05.2011
The Neverending Fence - Tom Butler
WWW
Statement for The Agency Of Unrealized Projects I use found postcards as miniature environments for sinister and fantastical scenarios. These proposals are not intended be realized and are also distanced from us by the age of the postcard, the only pl ...
Statement for The Agency Of Unrealized Projects I use found postcards as miniature environments for sinister and fantastical scenarios. These proposals are not intended be realized and are also distanced from us by the age of the postcard, the only pl ...
W10982
24.12.2015
Notes Toward a Temple - The Legacy
WWW
This proposal seeks to confront problems in the disciplines of art and architecture in an ecological age. (1) Our infrastructure and aesthetic culture does not attune itself to the ever present crisis of nuclear waste, the bi-product of nuclear energy, wh ...
This proposal seeks to confront problems in the disciplines of art and architecture in an ecological age. (1) Our infrastructure and aesthetic culture does not attune itself to the ever present crisis of nuclear waste, the bi-product of nuclear energy, wh ...
W3705
17.05.2011
PA(E/S)SAGGIO - beatrice crastini
WWW
Project to next Documenta-Kassel, at the moment nobody have contact me. It's on the utopia of the cohabitation by Franco Rotelli, historic successor by Franco Basaglia father of the psychiatric revolution Beauty is a need, the ugliness makes it ugly. ...
Project to next Documenta-Kassel, at the moment nobody have contact me. It's on the utopia of the cohabitation by Franco Rotelli, historic successor by Franco Basaglia father of the psychiatric revolution Beauty is a need, the ugliness makes it ugly. ...
W4994
30.08.2012
democraticrain.net - c a l c (omi - Thomas Scheiderbauer)
WWW
democraticrain.net is based on the idea of giving a “printed voice” to people in a concrete context on the interface between inside > < outside and the individual > < collective. it allows to create and send black and white A4-statements or -images t ...
democraticrain.net is based on the idea of giving a “printed voice” to people in a concrete context on the interface between inside > < outside and the individual > < collective. it allows to create and send black and white A4-statements or -images t ...
W4680
26.05.2011
Heads in Starlight - Kathryn Macdonald
WWW
Heads in Starlight, a closing event, for Feel Felt (see background on page 2) night performance for up to 100. We bring pre-cut unassembled tall paper-cone hats and on site we thread tall grass stalks and fine light-optic cables through the tips of the h ...
Heads in Starlight, a closing event, for Feel Felt (see background on page 2) night performance for up to 100. We bring pre-cut unassembled tall paper-cone hats and on site we thread tall grass stalks and fine light-optic cables through the tips of the h ...
W4832
07.08.2012
Will there still be sugar after the Rebellion? - Simon Le Ruez & Maud Haya Baviera
WWW
Project title: Will there still be sugar after the Rebellion? As a way to further our collaborative practice we are interested in using Site Platform to create a series of short videos. Taking a piece of literature, a painting or a film still as a st ...
Project title: Will there still be sugar after the Rebellion? As a way to further our collaborative practice we are interested in using Site Platform to create a series of short videos. Taking a piece of literature, a painting or a film still as a st ...
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 ...
U9557
23.04.1997
Eislandschaft - P. Fischli und D. Weiss
Unbuilt Roads
HEIZKRAFTWERK RÖMERBRUCKE STADTWERKE SAARBROCKEN - KUNSTPROJEKT - Bauherr: Stadtwerke Saarbrücken Projekt 3: "Eislandschaft" Künstler: P. Fischli und D. Weiss, Zürich Architekten: PAS, Jourdan und Müller Lage und Baubeschreibung ...
HEIZKRAFTWERK RÖMERBRUCKE STADTWERKE SAARBROCKEN - KUNSTPROJEKT - Bauherr: Stadtwerke Saarbrücken Projekt 3: "Eislandschaft" Künstler: P. Fischli und D. Weiss, Zürich Architekten: PAS, Jourdan und Müller Lage und Baubeschreibung ...
W3696
16.05.2011
Man thrown from his environment torned
pick up his mess
rhea his route
rolling in his fate - Alicia Larraín
WWW
The concept of this Art installation is to emphasize the segmentation or boundary as a subtle , ambiguous limit, which divides areas, confining people, separating them in the world they inhabit.  Allowing them to free themselves from their imprisonmen ...
The concept of this Art installation is to emphasize the segmentation or boundary as a subtle , ambiguous limit, which divides areas, confining people, separating them in the world they inhabit.  Allowing them to free themselves from their imprisonmen ...
U9978
01.01.1972
Social Resource Project For the Munich Olympics - Stephen Willats
Unbuilt Roads
The social resource project for the Munich Olympics is specifically directed at members of athletic clubs and the audience of athletic fixtures. The project aims to get participants to articulate the rules and perceptual structure of the athletic social e ...
The social resource project for the Munich Olympics is specifically directed at members of athletic clubs and the audience of athletic fixtures. The project aims to get participants to articulate the rules and perceptual structure of the athletic social e ...
W3479
11.05.2011
Belfast Harbor Public Art Project - Joaquin Gasgonia Palencia
WWW
Joaquin Gasgonia Palencia November 27, 2009 Call for Qualifications Belfast Harbor Public Art Project 500 words The spirit of public art is civic - it arises from the community's socio-historical experiences, from its sense of oneness and solid ...
Joaquin Gasgonia Palencia November 27, 2009 Call for Qualifications Belfast Harbor Public Art Project 500 words The spirit of public art is civic - it arises from the community's socio-historical experiences, from its sense of oneness and solid ...
W4516
25.05.2011
Viktor Timofeev
WWW
In this painting I have "created" a triumphal arch constructed out of 13 worker-housing units, stacked precariously and defying the laws of physics. While this village/monument is rendered to appear structurally sound, its context is most certainly utopia ...
In this painting I have "created" a triumphal arch constructed out of 13 worker-housing units, stacked precariously and defying the laws of physics. While this village/monument is rendered to appear structurally sound, its context is most certainly utopia ...
W3580
13.05.2011
Diary - Brocken Column, 1989 - Dan Mihaltianu
WWW
Brocken Column belongs to a series of works produced in the late 80s with the generic title "Diary", drawings, lithographs, artist books and installations, using as symbols the initials of the week days ...
Brocken Column belongs to a series of works produced in the late 80s with the generic title "Diary", drawings, lithographs, artist books and installations, using as symbols the initials of the week days ...
W4696
26.05.2011
Color Choices. Participatory Sculptures - Richard Jochum
WWW
Color Choices. Participatory Sculptures Short Description In 2005 I've participated in an open call for a public art project. The project included the redesign of 5 station buildings along a railroad connecting small villages in the middle of the Au ...
Color Choices. Participatory Sculptures Short Description In 2005 I've participated in an open call for a public art project. The project included the redesign of 5 station buildings along a railroad connecting small villages in the middle of the Au ...
W5463
21.10.2012
The House I Grew Up In - Zena Zakanycz
WWW
Artist Statement: It is interesting to see what one value or thinks should be contained, stored and kept. This idea of something being secure and safely tucked away or collected is fundamental in my work. I think it is an essential quality of humans to ...
Artist Statement: It is interesting to see what one value or thinks should be contained, stored and kept. This idea of something being secure and safely tucked away or collected is fundamental in my work. I think it is an essential quality of humans to ...