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, in this way charting the terrain of a contingent future.
Though the state of being unrealized implies the potential for realization, not all projects are intended to be carried out. In other instances, artists deliberately leave works incomplete, to record very interesting “failures” or experiments. Other planned projects involve consciously utopian, non-utilitarian, and conceptual spaces that were not made available for realization. Whether censored, forgotten, postponed, impossible, or rejected, unrealized projects form a unique testament to the speculative power of non-action.
You are invited to contribute your own unrealized projects to AUP’s growing archive. Contributions can include text (DOC) and image files (two JPEGs or PDFs up to 2MB each), and can be submitted online at www.e-flux.com/aup. Please include one paragraph describing your project.
Submission deadline: May 25, 2011
The Agency of Unrealized Projects (AUP) will be opening a temporary office in Basel this June, comprising of an archive of unrealized art projects. This will present projects collected through this open call and those collated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Guy Tortosa following several years of international research conducted in the late 90s. AUP follows the exhibition of the book project Unbuilt Roads: 107 Unrealized Projects, presented as a public archive at e-flux in 2009.
AUP is a project of e-flux in collaboration with the Serpentine Gallery devised by Julieta Aranda, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Julia Peyton-Jones and Anton Vidokle.
Agency of Unrealized Projects (AUP) identity is designed by Liam Gillick.