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.

Nicht realisierte Projekte - Stefan Demary

Prima del 73 - Fabio Mauri

Placid Earth: A Project for the Meeting of Millennia - Cai Guo Quiang

Eight Days a Week - Joe Scanlan

Douglas Gordon - 5 year drive-by; proposal for a public artwork.

Aus: Katalog 'Kunst bleibt Kunst' - Hans Peter Feldman

Monument to Democracy - Kounellis

The pyramids...to be seen to be believed - Jonathan Monk

A FAIRLY TALL TOWER, 48,000 Miles High -  - Siah Armajani

Jake and Dinos Chapman's five proposals for an empty plinth situated on central londons trafalgar square - Jake and Dinos Chapman

Agency of Unrealised Projects
Logo by Liam Gillick
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Date
Title
Source
Description
Tags
W4510
25.05.2011
THE SHIP OF NO PLACE - Yu-Chen Wang
WWW
THE SHIP OF NO PLACE Inspired by Thomas More’s 1615 fiction, Utopia – travelers’ voyages of discovering the new utopian island. The Ship of No Place is an artist traveling residency project taking place on a crew ship. The ship will set up its jo ...
THE SHIP OF NO PLACE Inspired by Thomas More’s 1615 fiction, Utopia – travelers’ voyages of discovering the new utopian island. The Ship of No Place is an artist traveling residency project taking place on a crew ship. The ship will set up its jo ...
W3525
11.05.2011
Paper Wave - Tilly Shiner
WWW
Drawing for a human- scale wave, made from paper and biro pen. Using only the pressure of the pen to induce sculptural form from a flat surface. Referencing a common motif of the sublime, this work suggests something ordinary with extraordinar ...
Drawing for a human- scale wave, made from paper and biro pen. Using only the pressure of the pen to induce sculptural form from a flat surface. Referencing a common motif of the sublime, this work suggests something ordinary with extraordinar ...
W3674
15.05.2011
The Warhol Machine - Johanna Thompson
WWW
The Warhol Machine is a mechanism that will bring 15 minutes of fame to everyone. It is an installation in Times Square, New York City, consisting of a video camera in a booth, a visitor inside the booth and in front of the camera and the already installe ...
The Warhol Machine is a mechanism that will bring 15 minutes of fame to everyone. It is an installation in Times Square, New York City, consisting of a video camera in a booth, a visitor inside the booth and in front of the camera and the already installe ...
W3612
13.05.2011
Gonna Make you Sweat (2008) - Divya Mehra
WWW
Filmed & edited (2007-2008) during Columbia University's planned expansion in Harlem, Gonna Make you Sweat (2008) had big plans to rival Harlem's monolithic neighborhood endorsements. The work teeters within a space of uncertainty; does it function as a ...
Filmed & edited (2007-2008) during Columbia University's planned expansion in Harlem, Gonna Make you Sweat (2008) had big plans to rival Harlem's monolithic neighborhood endorsements. The work teeters within a space of uncertainty; does it function as a ...
W4117
23.05.2011
Water and air - Marisa Prefer
WWW
Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.  -Jacques Yves Cousteau I am working using well-known objects as well as invisible devices. Creating multidimensional collage using public space and a ...
Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.  -Jacques Yves Cousteau I am working using well-known objects as well as invisible devices. Creating multidimensional collage using public space and a ...
W4351
24.05.2011
R118 G223 B209 - Walter Benjamin Smith
WWW
Walter Benjamin Smith, R118 G223 B209, 2010- 2035, 40” x 68”, enamel on panel R118 G223 B209 is a billboard-like panel that color matches, at full saturation, the scaffolding surrounding the Manhattanville demolition site. This color has multi ...
Walter Benjamin Smith, R118 G223 B209, 2010- 2035, 40” x 68”, enamel on panel R118 G223 B209 is a billboard-like panel that color matches, at full saturation, the scaffolding surrounding the Manhattanville demolition site. This color has multi ...
W4446
25.05.2011
Hop(e) - Alexander Callsen
WWW
Hop(e) is the outline of an inflatable bouncing castle in shape of the headquarters of the major bank Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt am Main - Germany. The german word Hoffnung (HOPE) comes from the root hopen/hüpfen which means "to hop, to bounce (i ...
Hop(e) is the outline of an inflatable bouncing castle in shape of the headquarters of the major bank Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt am Main - Germany. The german word Hoffnung (HOPE) comes from the root hopen/hüpfen which means "to hop, to bounce (i ...
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 ...
W5905
18.10.2013
Temp - Matthijs Muller
WWW
Temp (pronounced: Temp-io) is a pavilion that offers protection against sun and rain. The only way to reach the pavilion is by crossing a circle of sand and inevitably leave your traces in the sand. Visitors are invited to erase their traces by rotatin ...
Temp (pronounced: Temp-io) is a pavilion that offers protection against sun and rain. The only way to reach the pavilion is by crossing a circle of sand and inevitably leave your traces in the sand. Visitors are invited to erase their traces by rotatin ...
W10443
23.04.2014
ENIGMA - Sebastian Tedesco
WWW
The project is the installation in the Antarctic Pole of an object, a magnet, an object that itself has a symbolic and enigmatic load. The proposal is to install in the Antarctic territory a magnet horseshoe 1 m high by 60 cm base and 3 cm thick at it ...
The project is the installation in the Antarctic Pole of an object, a magnet, an object that itself has a symbolic and enigmatic load. The proposal is to install in the Antarctic territory a magnet horseshoe 1 m high by 60 cm base and 3 cm thick at it ...
W4530
25.05.2011
Star Museum in Sharjah by A12 - A12 Star Museum in Sharjah
WWW
Star Museum in Sharjah by A12 Our proposal for Sharjah Art Foundation Production Programme was to build a temporary pavilion to host the first stage of the Star Museum, a travelling museum dedicated to the stars. The stars in this museum are not inten ...
Star Museum in Sharjah by A12 Our proposal for Sharjah Art Foundation Production Programme was to build a temporary pavilion to host the first stage of the Star Museum, a travelling museum dedicated to the stars. The stars in this museum are not inten ...
U9898
01.01.1997
PROJEKT - Ulrich Rückreim
Unbuilt Roads
13 Kuben Granit Rosa Porrino, jeweils horizontal und vertikal gespalten jeweils ca. 300 x 200 x 200 cm davon jeweils ca. 90 cm in die Erde eingelassen 120 Bäume jeweils in lOer Gruppen gepflanzt Gesamtareal: 100 x 100 m Dreize ...
13 Kuben Granit Rosa Porrino, jeweils horizontal und vertikal gespalten jeweils ca. 300 x 200 x 200 cm davon jeweils ca. 90 cm in die Erde eingelassen 120 Bäume jeweils in lOer Gruppen gepflanzt Gesamtareal: 100 x 100 m Dreize ...
W4094
23.05.2011
UNREALIZEABLE PROJECT A000008 - Stefano W. Pasquini
WWW
UNREALIZEABLE PROJECT A000008: The gallery wall gets shot with a machine gun. The project almost got realized in 1996 in a gallery in Maastricht. Unfortunately the Dutch Police wouldn't allow the shooting to happen, even without public, and advised the us ...
UNREALIZEABLE PROJECT A000008: The gallery wall gets shot with a machine gun. The project almost got realized in 1996 in a gallery in Maastricht. Unfortunately the Dutch Police wouldn't allow the shooting to happen, even without public, and advised the us ...
W5181
29.09.2012
Binary Kruno - Kruno Jost
WWW
COMPUTER GENERATED ARTISTS /// under construction - working name BinaryKruno WHAT: Binary Kruno (BK) is a critique of the system of artistic production in modern times. The project aims to discover through research whether approaches to funding artistic ...
COMPUTER GENERATED ARTISTS /// under construction - working name BinaryKruno WHAT: Binary Kruno (BK) is a critique of the system of artistic production in modern times. The project aims to discover through research whether approaches to funding artistic ...
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 ...
W3664
15.05.2011
Universal Boogie Woogie - Irene Judong
WWW
Universal Boogie Woogie ‘Art All-Around’ visualization, Portland, USA 2008 This is the working title of the design for the ‘Art All-Around’ visualization. The basic concept for this design relies on a system of contradictive thinking. S ...
Universal Boogie Woogie ‘Art All-Around’ visualization, Portland, USA 2008 This is the working title of the design for the ‘Art All-Around’ visualization. The basic concept for this design relies on a system of contradictive thinking. S ...
W4711
26.05.2011
The Intellectual Refuge(e) Camp – 21 tents for the 21st Century - Patrick Meagher & WORK.ac
WWW
Dear M. Buergel, Please find enclosed our proposal ‘The Intellectual Refuge(e) Camp – 21 tents for the 21st Century’, which your Leitmotifs for Documenta 12 inspired. Feeling immediately akin to your text, the Leitmotifs resonated with idea ...
Dear M. Buergel, Please find enclosed our proposal ‘The Intellectual Refuge(e) Camp – 21 tents for the 21st Century’, which your Leitmotifs for Documenta 12 inspired. Feeling immediately akin to your text, the Leitmotifs resonated with idea ...
W3533
11.05.2011
The Pagoda - Michael Jantzen
WWW
Would be made from sustainably grown Western Red Cedar wood. Approximately twenty one feet wide, fifteen feet deep, and eighteen feet tall. ...
Would be made from sustainably grown Western Red Cedar wood. Approximately twenty one feet wide, fifteen feet deep, and eighteen feet tall. ...
W3743
18.05.2011
Rave Joy Mobile - Kai-Oi Jay Yung
WWW
A sound proofed enclosed box, mirrored on outside, pitch-black interior lit by 100 flashing neon LEDS, fitted with strawberry smoke nebuliser, fan and ventilation shaft to sit in the gallery. To be installed with state of the art sound system, digitally l ...
A sound proofed enclosed box, mirrored on outside, pitch-black interior lit by 100 flashing neon LEDS, fitted with strawberry smoke nebuliser, fan and ventilation shaft to sit in the gallery. To be installed with state of the art sound system, digitally l ...
W4397
25.05.2011
Flâneur - konstantinos-antonios goutos / the[video]Flâneu®
WWW
PROJECT [video]Flâneu® The artist walks like a „Flâneur“ through the city. He does not have a turtle with him (as the original Parisian Flâneur of the 1830‘s used to); later, he does not write stories (as Edgar Allan Poe or Hans Christian Ande ...
PROJECT [video]Flâneu® The artist walks like a „Flâneur“ through the city. He does not have a turtle with him (as the original Parisian Flâneur of the 1830‘s used to); later, he does not write stories (as Edgar Allan Poe or Hans Christian Ande ...
W4384
25.05.2011
Baiju Parthan
WWW
'SYNCYTIUM / COSMOPOLIS' (An unrealized project from 2008 ) The project is an attempt to suggest that 'identity' is not a monolithic immutable asset, but a very granular and dynamic feedback system, a ceaseless process that continually emit and absor ...
'SYNCYTIUM / COSMOPOLIS' (An unrealized project from 2008 ) The project is an attempt to suggest that 'identity' is not a monolithic immutable asset, but a very granular and dynamic feedback system, a ceaseless process that continually emit and absor ...
W4593
25.05.2011
Sketch-collage for a project - antonio menchen
WWW
Untitled. 2008. Sketch-collage for a project. Variable measures. ...
Untitled. 2008. Sketch-collage for a project. Variable measures. ...
W5459
20.10.2012
Temporary Projection Installations for the Survivors of Atrocities. - Gavin Halm
WWW
Summary: Listings of the names of survivors (and their extended families through the present) are projected upon the walls and surrounding grounds of sites where atrocities have taken, or are currently taking, place. The thousands of names could be projec ...
Summary: Listings of the names of survivors (and their extended families through the present) are projected upon the walls and surrounding grounds of sites where atrocities have taken, or are currently taking, place. The thousands of names could be projec ...
W4534
25.05.2011
KOWTOW - ONE CHINA ONLY -- A LONELY EMPEROR - Vincent J.F. HUANG
WWW
KOWTOW ONE CHINA ONLY -- A LONELY EMPEROR VINCENT J.F. HUANG When China became the world’s second best economic entity, and when financial crisis strongly wounded every other nation’s economy, China’s emergence seemed to turn it into a global p ...
KOWTOW ONE CHINA ONLY -- A LONELY EMPEROR VINCENT J.F. HUANG When China became the world’s second best economic entity, and when financial crisis strongly wounded every other nation’s economy, China’s emergence seemed to turn it into a global p ...
W5896
18.10.2013
Golf course - Matthijs Muller
WWW
Golf courses are artificial landscapes with artificial hills and small artificial sand dunes. Now imagine a golf course (in the Netherlands, in the meadows), without those artificial hills and the small sand dunes replaced by metal versions on poles to pu ...
Golf courses are artificial landscapes with artificial hills and small artificial sand dunes. Now imagine a golf course (in the Netherlands, in the meadows), without those artificial hills and the small sand dunes replaced by metal versions on poles to pu ...
W4468
25.05.2011
Bürger Schöpfung Ewigkeit  - Gabriele Juvan
WWW
Bürger Schöpfung Ewigkeit (i.e. Citizen Creation Eternity) is a site specific, temporary project conceived for ,Luisenburg‘ rock labyrinth (Felsenlabyrinth) next to the city of Wunsiedel on the German/Czech border: *Six eye-catching rocks on a loop tr ...
Bürger Schöpfung Ewigkeit (i.e. Citizen Creation Eternity) is a site specific, temporary project conceived for ,Luisenburg‘ rock labyrinth (Felsenlabyrinth) next to the city of Wunsiedel on the German/Czech border: *Six eye-catching rocks on a loop tr ...