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.

Project for the Initiative Mahnmal Homosexuellenverfolgung, Frankfurt  - Jeff Wall

Battery Park City - Per Kirkeby

Monument with Rust - Gustav Metzger

PROJECT FOR A COMMUNITY CENTER, AVENUE DES NARCISSES, CHENOVE - Vito Acconci

To Two Too; Hypothetical Monument for a Natural Disaster - Jeffrey Wisniewski

Unrealized project for Tate Gallery + ICA, 1969 - Gilbert and George

Progetto per Gerry Schum - Guiseppe Penone

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

Temple of the western buddha (1971 Kathmedu) - Herman de Vries

The lmprobable Flow - Larry Bell

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick