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.

Battery Park City - Per Kirkeby

The bridge according to Jeong-a's dream - Koo Jeong

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

Isometric Projection - Sol Lewitt

No title, as the project only reached proposal stage - Rikrit Tiravanija

Relatum (Iron Plate and Stone) - Lee Ufan

Right-of-Privacy Release - Tony Oursler

2 Architecture Towers - Robert Irwin

Memorial - Ilya Kabakov

Art and Ourselves: A Proposal for the city of Nordhorn - Allen Rupperssberg

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
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Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W3670
15.05.2011
Kay Swiss
WWW
This work was proposed for a group show I was slated to be in at a university art gallery which will remain unnamed. Ultimately this work was not allowed to be installed in this form because the gallery directors were concerned the work might offend guest ...
This work was proposed for a group show I was slated to be in at a university art gallery which will remain unnamed. Ultimately this work was not allowed to be installed in this form because the gallery directors were concerned the work might offend guest ...
W3862
19.05.2011
WATER’, A Concept for Exhibition (to include the Site Specific Installation titled ‘Glint’)  - Kate Petley
WWW
Water: -As historical structure for migration, agriculture, and conflict -As political catalyst -Defining geography, location, and place or point of reference -As a poetic source for all kinds of inspiration -Mutable, shape-shifting substance that ca ...
Water: -As historical structure for migration, agriculture, and conflict -As political catalyst -Defining geography, location, and place or point of reference -As a poetic source for all kinds of inspiration -Mutable, shape-shifting substance that ca ...
U9779
01.01.1988
Relatum (Iron Plate and Stone) - Lee Ufan
Unbuilt Roads
Four natural stones are evenly places around an iron plate, facing each other. As the iron plate is buried one meter below the ground, only the four stones are visible to the viewer. The absence of the iron plate is indicated by a title sign which ind ...
Four natural stones are evenly places around an iron plate, facing each other. As the iron plate is buried one meter below the ground, only the four stones are visible to the viewer. The absence of the iron plate is indicated by a title sign which ind ...
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 ...
W4503
25.05.2011
The Dead Brushes Society - Paulo Patrício
WWW
The Dead Brushes Society Unrealized project for an exhibition presenting old or/and unused brushes who belong to acclaimed contemporary artists. Brushes they love or with which they did major works (or at least, representative of they're career). That du ...
The Dead Brushes Society Unrealized project for an exhibition presenting old or/and unused brushes who belong to acclaimed contemporary artists. Brushes they love or with which they did major works (or at least, representative of they're career). That du ...
W4842
08.08.2012
Hanan Shlonsky
WWW
An internet-art project, in which single socks from the first world are collected and sent to third-world countries infested with land-mines. This project will utilize both internet and regular mail. 1 My aunt had to have a Stool Examination. She ...
An internet-art project, in which single socks from the first world are collected and sent to third-world countries infested with land-mines. This project will utilize both internet and regular mail. 1 My aunt had to have a Stool Examination. She ...
W5251
10.10.2012
Katya Fialkova
WWW
The project was supposed to be a video in which an absurd woman tries to ‘fix’ nature. She puts skirts on trees, makeup on flowers and sunscreen on branches. She throws fabric over a gnarly tree stump to make it ‘prettier’. She measures a wide tre ...
The project was supposed to be a video in which an absurd woman tries to ‘fix’ nature. She puts skirts on trees, makeup on flowers and sunscreen on branches. She throws fabric over a gnarly tree stump to make it ‘prettier’. She measures a wide tre ...
W5055
03.09.2012
School in Berriozar - Taller Basico de Arquitectura [TBA]
WWW
School in Berriozar (2008) The building offers a unified image according to its public condition. This image is based on the sum of modular elements that respond to the program. The proposal provides a reference image inside Berriozar's residential are ...
School in Berriozar (2008) The building offers a unified image according to its public condition. This image is based on the sum of modular elements that respond to the program. The proposal provides a reference image inside Berriozar's residential are ...
W4513
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 ...
W4709
26.05.2011
A Sculpture on Another Sculpture - Eduardo Villanueva
WWW
A SCULPTURE ON ANOTHER SCULPTURE An artwork by Eduardo Villanueva. Through the appropriation of an existing sculpture, I will intervene the same sculpture by altering it and doing another sculpture above the pre-existing one, acting as the pattern of ...
A SCULPTURE ON ANOTHER SCULPTURE An artwork by Eduardo Villanueva. Through the appropriation of an existing sculpture, I will intervene the same sculpture by altering it and doing another sculpture above the pre-existing one, acting as the pattern of ...
W5903
18.10.2013
Scouts - Matthijs Muller
WWW
Instead of nature represented by some poor trees put in a "pot" between towering office-buildings these trees (in concrete "pots", with dustbins but without benches) scout new territory for future city expansion, just outside but still within sight of the ...
Instead of nature represented by some poor trees put in a "pot" between towering office-buildings these trees (in concrete "pots", with dustbins but without benches) scout new territory for future city expansion, just outside but still within sight of the ...
U9843
01.01.1996
Aguapracasa - Gabriel Orozco
Unbuilt Roads
House with half sphere swimming pool in the center (eventually reasons why the work has not been realised) No Time Previous Publications (?) No Existing Documents (photos, drawings, models): Drawing Other remarks Designed after a v ...
House with half sphere swimming pool in the center (eventually reasons why the work has not been realised) No Time Previous Publications (?) No Existing Documents (photos, drawings, models): Drawing Other remarks Designed after a v ...
W3832
19.05.2011
YKB : NYC Yves Klein Blue : A New York City Road. - Jeff Wood
WWW
" felt only night within me and it was then that I conceived the new art. " Kazimir Malevich YKB : NYC is a feature length art-film proposal in which 2 art-handlers driving a truck in New York city experience the city as a grand artwork while the ...
" felt only night within me and it was then that I conceived the new art. " Kazimir Malevich YKB : NYC is a feature length art-film proposal in which 2 art-handlers driving a truck in New York city experience the city as a grand artwork while the ...
W3494
11.05.2011
The New And The Always Same: Toward New Geographies of Habit - Elvia Pyburn-Wilk
WWW
The New And The Always Same: Toward New Geographies of Habit “The street signs for our event are all hand-written. The directions are painted over signs from past events. These handwritten signs are like the bus line that no longer runs.”1 --Phili ...
The New And The Always Same: Toward New Geographies of Habit “The street signs for our event are all hand-written. The directions are painted over signs from past events. These handwritten signs are like the bus line that no longer runs.”1 --Phili ...
W3751
18.05.2011
A FIRED FIELD - HECTOR MAVRIDIS
WWW
The action of breaking and turning over earth with a plow always fascinated me, the clods of earth being the result of this action, a simple 'gesture' from a machine which nevertheless brings about a dramatic change to the landscape, an awesome ephemeral ...
The action of breaking and turning over earth with a plow always fascinated me, the clods of earth being the result of this action, a simple 'gesture' from a machine which nevertheless brings about a dramatic change to the landscape, an awesome ephemeral ...
W5049
03.09.2012
Civic Centre in Salburua  - Taller Basico de Arquitectura [TBA]
WWW
Civic Centre in Salburua (2009) The expansion of the city towards the peripheral neighborhoods has occupied the green limits between the inhabited zone and the world. These areas still retain their limit character, and they don’t appear on the city a ...
Civic Centre in Salburua (2009) The expansion of the city towards the peripheral neighborhoods has occupied the green limits between the inhabited zone and the world. These areas still retain their limit character, and they don’t appear on the city a ...
W3597
13.05.2011
Heman Chong
WWW
I wanted to purchase the coffee table in Room 503, Hong Lou Hotel, Lianzhou, China and to mount it as a monument for all the shady deals that have been worked out over this table at a solo at Vitamin Creative Space in Guangzhou. ...
I wanted to purchase the coffee table in Room 503, Hong Lou Hotel, Lianzhou, China and to mount it as a monument for all the shady deals that have been worked out over this table at a solo at Vitamin Creative Space in Guangzhou. ...
U9948
30.01.1997
My House - Uri Tzaig
Unbuilt Roads
Like initiation, one has to build his own house, as shown to him in his own dreams. Useing the colors he likes, the shapes he fells, the distances his own body needs, giving names to things, functions, in his language. This house, that was built in my min ...
Like initiation, one has to build his own house, as shown to him in his own dreams. Useing the colors he likes, the shapes he fells, the distances his own body needs, giving names to things, functions, in his language. This house, that was built in my min ...
W4983
27.08.2012
Tappeto Rosso - Judit Pusztaszeri
WWW
“Tappeto Rosso” Tappeto Rosso is a site-specific installation, which served as the preliminary stage of an architectural design. The installation was the result of an in-depth research process addressing various issues surrounding the site known ...
“Tappeto Rosso” Tappeto Rosso is a site-specific installation, which served as the preliminary stage of an architectural design. The installation was the result of an in-depth research process addressing various issues surrounding the site known ...
W4001
22.05.2011
Michael Crowe
WWW
A proposal for Tate Modern which is a bit too costly at the moment. ...
A proposal for Tate Modern which is a bit too costly at the moment. ...
W4263
24.05.2011
Curating Un-realized. 9+1 Un-Realized Projects Revisited. - Elpida Karaba
WWW
Curating Un-realized. 9+1 Un-Realized Projects Revisited. Elpida Karaba, independent curator, theorist, Athens, Greece. In 2005 I have organized and published the curatorial/publication project, Curating Issues, 9+1 Un-Realized Projects. The project ...
Curating Un-realized. 9+1 Un-Realized Projects Revisited. Elpida Karaba, independent curator, theorist, Athens, Greece. In 2005 I have organized and published the curatorial/publication project, Curating Issues, 9+1 Un-Realized Projects. The project ...
W4213
24.05.2011
MAXXI TV - ELASTIC Group of Artistic Research
WWW
MAXXI TV, unrealized project by ELASTIC Group of Artistic Research for the MAXXI- National Museum of the 21st Century Arts in Rome (Italy) Report on the approach to the subject,work placement and dialogue with the architecture of the museum: ...
MAXXI TV, unrealized project by ELASTIC Group of Artistic Research for the MAXXI- National Museum of the 21st Century Arts in Rome (Italy) Report on the approach to the subject,work placement and dialogue with the architecture of the museum: ...
W4220
24.05.2011
Strayed in Schizophrenic Landscapes of a Celibate Machine - Atelier Uraiqat
WWW
Strayed in Schizophrenic Landscapes of a Celibate Machine Atelier Uraiqat “ The forces of living bodies,..... which exert their energy or force through the production of the new and create, through their efforts, networks, fields, territories that ...
Strayed in Schizophrenic Landscapes of a Celibate Machine Atelier Uraiqat “ The forces of living bodies,..... which exert their energy or force through the production of the new and create, through their efforts, networks, fields, territories that ...
W4466
25.05.2011
LEAVE UR MYTH - Lea Petrou
WWW
LEAVE UR MYTH, 2007 For a never realized exhibition at the city of Sarajevo, I proposed a floor-based installation that consists of some hundreds of souvenir bottles of ouzo, (4.5 x 4.5 x 15 cm each). The miniature bottles have the shape of Evzonas, a ...
LEAVE UR MYTH, 2007 For a never realized exhibition at the city of Sarajevo, I proposed a floor-based installation that consists of some hundreds of souvenir bottles of ouzo, (4.5 x 4.5 x 15 cm each). The miniature bottles have the shape of Evzonas, a ...
U9941
01.01.1993
No title, as the project only reached proposal stage - Rikrit Tiravanija
Unbuilt Roads
Proposal No. 1 (a) In the exhibition space, in proximation (as precisely as possible) to actual space. Replicate (Reconstruct) in architectural scale, space and in specific: detail, the office of the director of the museum. (b) All contents (in deta ...
Proposal No. 1 (a) In the exhibition space, in proximation (as precisely as possible) to actual space. Replicate (Reconstruct) in architectural scale, space and in specific: detail, the office of the director of the museum. (b) All contents (in deta ...
W10588
21.06.2014
The Surrey Flame - Jonathan Parsons
WWW
Proposal to re-use the dismantled aluminium Olympic Rings that were sited on Box Hill during the cycling road race of London 2012 The forms that resulted from the way the original aluminium Olympic rings had been deconstructed inspired me to design a s ...
Proposal to re-use the dismantled aluminium Olympic Rings that were sited on Box Hill during the cycling road race of London 2012 The forms that resulted from the way the original aluminium Olympic rings had been deconstructed inspired me to design a s ...