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.

The insurer - Fabrice Hybert

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

Festival du film de famille - Pierre Huyghe

Der New-Babyloner - Constant

Museum - Katharina Fritsch

Messages to the Public - Nancy Spero

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

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

Project tor the Veterans Administration Hospital--Bay Pines, Florida. - Robert Morris

Grand Concours International D'Architecture  - Mahe Gilles

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
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Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W5067
05.09.2012
Color Pencil Tree - Dave Rittinger
WWW
Artist and designer Dave Rittinger has developed a proposal for a public art installation entitled 'Color Pencil Tree'. The arboreal sculpture morphs tree branches with the body of the colored drawing tools. The concept is dictated by the usage of exist ...
Artist and designer Dave Rittinger has developed a proposal for a public art installation entitled 'Color Pencil Tree'. The arboreal sculpture morphs tree branches with the body of the colored drawing tools. The concept is dictated by the usage of exist ...
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 ...
W5318
18.10.2012
Dialogue - Thiago Parizi
WWW
05.2010 The project entitled “Dialogue” consists of a ping-pong table and two sound speakers. Measuring a total of 274 x 152 x 136 cm, this unfinished installation would have both speakers facing each other at both of the extremities of the table. ...
05.2010 The project entitled “Dialogue” consists of a ping-pong table and two sound speakers. Measuring a total of 274 x 152 x 136 cm, this unfinished installation would have both speakers facing each other at both of the extremities of the table. ...
W4430
25.05.2011
Fountains - Giuseppe Gabellone
WWW
Fountains Project for the wood of sculptures of Vassivière island, France February 2010 ...
Fountains Project for the wood of sculptures of Vassivière island, France February 2010 ...
W4187
24.05.2011
FOUR-WHEEL DRIVE - Katherine Liberovskaya
WWW
FOUR-WHEEL DRIVE by Katherine Liberovskaya: video with Phill Niblock: sound collage 4 projection and quadrophonic sound installation (2006) Project description (short): "Four-Wheel Drive" is a sonic video installation piece consisting of 4 p ...
FOUR-WHEEL DRIVE by Katherine Liberovskaya: video with Phill Niblock: sound collage 4 projection and quadrophonic sound installation (2006) Project description (short): "Four-Wheel Drive" is a sonic video installation piece consisting of 4 p ...
W4376
25.05.2011
Dreams of Little Nemo  - MICHEL GERARD
WWW
Dreams of Little Nemo is a public sculpture about a personage in a comic book that I read as a child during the Second World War in occupied Paris. Little Nemo in Slumberland is a book about a scared small boy with whom I identified completely. He was ...
Dreams of Little Nemo is a public sculpture about a personage in a comic book that I read as a child during the Second World War in occupied Paris. Little Nemo in Slumberland is a book about a scared small boy with whom I identified completely. He was ...
W5068
05.09.2012
White Blood Cells - Bodino Philippe
WWW
multi-artistic performance uses several field such as live painting, video, dance, live music, improvisation. ...
multi-artistic performance uses several field such as live painting, video, dance, live music, improvisation. ...
W4591
25.05.2011
Unbuilt Art Project - colab studio, llc
WWW
colab studio, llc Reach 11 – Unbuilt Art Project AUP 05.25.11 Reach 11 is a sports complex in North Phoenix comprised of 18 soccer fields and 4 baseball fields. A Call for Artists went out to provide large amounts of shade at four diverse locations with ...
colab studio, llc Reach 11 – Unbuilt Art Project AUP 05.25.11 Reach 11 is a sports complex in North Phoenix comprised of 18 soccer fields and 4 baseball fields. A Call for Artists went out to provide large amounts of shade at four diverse locations with ...
W3557
12.05.2011
Liberties - Esin Turan
WWW
Abstract Liberties is an experiment in giving and receiving and working together peacefully to create something of universal value and at the same time benefit individually. It is an interactive lear- ning experience, in which each participant learns tha ...
Abstract Liberties is an experiment in giving and receiving and working together peacefully to create something of universal value and at the same time benefit individually. It is an interactive lear- ning experience, in which each participant learns tha ...
W4149
23.05.2011
Coming up for Air 2001  - Cornford & Cross
WWW
Coming up for Air 2001 Coming up for Air was a proposal for a temporary public art project based on the production of an imposing landmark in the reservoir of Chasewater Country Park, Staffordshire. The project aimed to promote debate on the relations ...
Coming up for Air 2001 Coming up for Air was a proposal for a temporary public art project based on the production of an imposing landmark in the reservoir of Chasewater Country Park, Staffordshire. The project aimed to promote debate on the relations ...
W4176
24.05.2011
MEDIA TORTURE CHAMBER - Mitya Nesterov
WWW
MEDIA TORTURE CHAMBER is room one cannot leave without permission. Inside that room you have a baroque-styled bed one cannot sleep on because it is covered with sharp nails, four powerful speakers playing classical music all the time, and plasma TV-screen ...
MEDIA TORTURE CHAMBER is room one cannot leave without permission. Inside that room you have a baroque-styled bed one cannot sleep on because it is covered with sharp nails, four powerful speakers playing classical music all the time, and plasma TV-screen ...
W4285
24.05.2011
Overlords - Tom Estes
WWW
Overlords by Tom Estes Description Overlords was originally conceived as a video installation comprised of images of ‘Time Travel’ projected on to a book called ‘Local History and Antiquities’. The work was deliberately left incomplete. The ph ...
Overlords by Tom Estes Description Overlords was originally conceived as a video installation comprised of images of ‘Time Travel’ projected on to a book called ‘Local History and Antiquities’. The work was deliberately left incomplete. The ph ...
W10895
23.03.2015
The Great Wall Archive - The Bureau for Transgressive Tourism and the Acquisition of its Archives
WWW
The Great Wall Archive presents many potential narratives through the collection and exhibition of an excess of specific and seemingly arbitrary information. Its conception was spurred by a curiosity in the ways we communicate with one another, specifical ...
The Great Wall Archive presents many potential narratives through the collection and exhibition of an excess of specific and seemingly arbitrary information. Its conception was spurred by a curiosity in the ways we communicate with one another, specifical ...
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 ...
W5444
20.10.2012
The Ghost Room - Veronika Gorelik
WWW
27 crates 6 tones of amber--13000 pounds 10 years to construct baroque music-bach It is around 8 evening--precisely when all black tie art and social events start around a metropolitan city. Not unlike any of these type of events -many people gather ...
27 crates 6 tones of amber--13000 pounds 10 years to construct baroque music-bach It is around 8 evening--precisely when all black tie art and social events start around a metropolitan city. Not unlike any of these type of events -many people gather ...
W4823
07.08.2012
Outstretched Arms - Todd Williamson
WWW
"Outstretched Arms" is a project that was originally conceived in 2009 for a university show. It features a 4ft diameter hanging painting that slowly rotates with the air currents. It also features a 10 minute commissioned work of music that supports ...
"Outstretched Arms" is a project that was originally conceived in 2009 for a university show. It features a 4ft diameter hanging painting that slowly rotates with the air currents. It also features a 10 minute commissioned work of music that supports ...
W3556
12.05.2011
Breakdown: A Prototypical Monument to the Open Road - John Landewe
WWW
Proposal John Landewe 152 Douglass St. Brooklyn, NY 917.676.950 Breakdown: A Prototypical Monument to the Open Road Breakdown is a self-contained, nomadic monument dedicated to industrial-strength mobility and the acceleration of the postmodern c ...
Proposal John Landewe 152 Douglass St. Brooklyn, NY 917.676.950 Breakdown: A Prototypical Monument to the Open Road Breakdown is a self-contained, nomadic monument dedicated to industrial-strength mobility and the acceleration of the postmodern c ...
W5175
26.09.2012
Action Office III - Geissler Sann
WWW
Action Office III The first cubicles were designed in 1967 by Robert Propst. The purpose was to give the workers more privacy, to isolate them from sights and noises of an open workspace. Probst consulted for his research mathematicians, behavioral psych ...
Action Office III The first cubicles were designed in 1967 by Robert Propst. The purpose was to give the workers more privacy, to isolate them from sights and noises of an open workspace. Probst consulted for his research mathematicians, behavioral psych ...
W4703
26.05.2011
Sterling Crispin
WWW
My project involves a globally connected network of participants wearing EEG brain-computer interfaces. By displaying the average of thousands of live readings back to the participants their minds will slowly become closer to the average. Emerging brai ...
My project involves a globally connected network of participants wearing EEG brain-computer interfaces. By displaying the average of thousands of live readings back to the participants their minds will slowly become closer to the average. Emerging brai ...
W4989
28.08.2012
Food Sluice - Ulrike Möntmann
WWW
FOOD SLUICE The literal reference of the Food Sluice is to a way of channelling food. Following the principle of a sluice, the flow of food between two spaces is regulated, without there ever being a direct, open connection between these spaces. Un ...
FOOD SLUICE The literal reference of the Food Sluice is to a way of channelling food. Following the principle of a sluice, the flow of food between two spaces is regulated, without there ever being a direct, open connection between these spaces. Un ...
W3852
19.05.2011
WILE.E.ARTIST  - Nicole Mortiboys
WWW
Two artists Chris Hodson and Nicole Mortiboys, meet every Wednesday over a period of three years, to make plans and talk about Art. They name themselves WILE.E.ARTIST (since renamed TNT) based around the cartoon character Wile.E.Coyote.They work together ...
Two artists Chris Hodson and Nicole Mortiboys, meet every Wednesday over a period of three years, to make plans and talk about Art. They name themselves WILE.E.ARTIST (since renamed TNT) based around the cartoon character Wile.E.Coyote.They work together ...
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. ...
W10252
10.04.2014
Contact - Bastiaan Arler
WWW
In the summer of 1975 a fresh wind blew over the world. At a distance of 225 km, in orbit around the Earth, the USA and the USSR made contact as two spacecraft docked together in a sign of peace. In an instant it lightened the spirit of all of those caugh ...
In the summer of 1975 a fresh wind blew over the world. At a distance of 225 km, in orbit around the Earth, the USA and the USSR made contact as two spacecraft docked together in a sign of peace. In an instant it lightened the spirit of all of those caugh ...
W4322
24.05.2011
Laboratory for Perfecting Fear - Transidency
WWW
Laboratory for Perfecting Fear (working title) Proposal for the II Moscow International Biennale for Young Art Contents Proposal Proposed Installation Background Theory Possible problems and Possible Solutions Methodology Locations Support About Trans ...
Laboratory for Perfecting Fear (working title) Proposal for the II Moscow International Biennale for Young Art Contents Proposal Proposed Installation Background Theory Possible problems and Possible Solutions Methodology Locations Support About Trans ...
U9696
01.01.1993
Ceinture - Huang Ping Yong
Unbuilt Roads
Ce Projet était fait pour la vitrine (galerie) qui se situe autour de la salle principal et d'un autre côte vers las rues, la piece est un tuyau transparent de 75M longeur, 40 cm diamétre, delans mettre les plus sortes d'insecte = sorpion, lézards, ar ...
Ce Projet était fait pour la vitrine (galerie) qui se situe autour de la salle principal et d'un autre côte vers las rues, la piece est un tuyau transparent de 75M longeur, 40 cm diamétre, delans mettre les plus sortes d'insecte = sorpion, lézards, ar ...
W5443
20.10.2012
The beauty of Your Desintegrated Details - Marco Tavolaro
WWW
Project description in one sentence. “The beauty of Your Desintegrated Details” is a mapping projection based installation made with canvas, projectors and animation. WHAT - What is the Project about specifically? The project deals with perceptio ...
Project description in one sentence. “The beauty of Your Desintegrated Details” is a mapping projection based installation made with canvas, projectors and animation. WHAT - What is the Project about specifically? The project deals with perceptio ...