The 7th Art Prospect Festival: Treasure Hunt, a hybrid online/offline public art festival, featured interventions and Augmented Reality works by more than 50 artists from 13 countries.

The 2020 Festival responded to how the COVID-19 pandemic had changed our world, transformed how we view and utilize public spaces, forced isolation, and made in-person communication and collaboration a challenge. 

The Festival documented the treasures revealed in the time of rapid change. What was important to us, which details of everyday life will we remember, what objects or facts will “treasure hunters” find? The treasures are not always tangible; they can come in the form of a secret, a special feat, an emotion, or something intimate that needs to be preserved.

Installations, performances, and Augmented Reality art works on balconies, windows, sidewalks, and courtyards were available for viewing in-person in 25 cities on October 15-18 and online at www.artprospect.org. The work could also be experienced on an interactive map on a mobile app. Online panel discussions with Art Prospect artists and curators on October 15 and 16 at the ArtsLink Assembly focused on the pandemic’s impact on the practice of the artists working in public spaces and addressed social issues with a particular focus on the artists in the post-Soviet countries.