This Pasar Opens At 11 Am: Jemput Datang

KUALA LUMPUR, 14 September 2026: Someone is calling out prices. Handwritten signs sit among the goods. Conversations switch between different languages and dialects, and if you came with your grandparents as a child, chances are you held tightly to their hands so you wouldn’t get lost in the crowd.

That world becomes the starting point for IMMERSIO 2026: PASAR, the seventh edition of the new media art festival by Filamen. Taking place from 11 – 27 September 2026 at GMBB, Muzium Telekom, Ombak KLCC and REXKL in Kuala Lumpur, the festival brings together over 100 artists and creative technologists from Asia, with more than 70 artworks spanning digital and interactive installations, projection, visual works and sculptures.

Across Southeast Asia, pasar, or markets, have long been places where more than goods change hands. People bargain and run into familiar faces; raw ingredients sit alongside cooked food; sellers call out from every direction and uncles linger over kopi talking about the latest stories in town. For some, the pasar holds childhood memories; for others, it is simply part of the daily routine. The experience may be shared across the region, but what stays with each person and what each artist sees in it can be remarkably different.

At IMMERSIO 2026, there is no single way to see a pasar.

In Sekarat, Indonesia artist Rimbawan Gerilya turns the rise and slow death of batu akik gemstone craze into a playable video game. Survival depends on turning stones into money and points while the installation itself recalls the dingdong arcade machines once found in Indonesia shopping centres, bringing two crazes that once drew crowds in one game.

From Singapore, Arron Teo looks at disappearing wet markets in WTFish Wonderland ’87 where familiar market sounds meet a strange digital world populated by fish-headed vendors. Back in Malaysia, Lain Main Lab turns RELA into The Gatekeeper of Pasar, a surveillance-inspired photo booth where multiple cameras observe visitors from different angles before issuing a receipt-like record of their passage through the “digital pasar”.

Other Malaysian artists find PASAR in things deeply embedded in how we live. In Ikat Tepi, Aresha Reza takes the unmistakable knot used to secure a bag of kopi or teh and looks at how plastic, convenience and habit have become so tightly woven into everyday culture. In When We Touch the Floor, Lee Mok Yee turns to tikar getah and the way many of us grew up sitting, squatting, eating, resting and gathering close to the floor.

From the Philippines, Rhaz Oriente turns a Friday night in Makati’s nightlife district into a constellation in After Hours Atlas: Makati, with the places people gather appearing as points across a changing night sky.

Together with artists and collectives from Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong, PASAR moves between trade and memory, habits and social spaces, revealing how differently a marketplace can be remembered, experienced and reimagined.

“When we say something looks ‘too pasar’, it is usually not meant as a compliment, but what if the colours, handwritten signs, sounds and even the chaos are exactly what make it interesting? We see these things so often that we hardly give them a second look. With PASAR, we want people to look again, because something you have walked past a hundred times might surprise you when someone else sees it differently,” said Abdul Shakir, Co-Founder of Filamen.

The heart of IMMERSIO 2026 sits at GMBB, where PASAR takes over Level 5 with more than 45 artworks by established and emerging artists and collectives. Curated by Koh Kai Ting, the exhibition invites visitors to wander through one interpretation after another, almost like making their way through a pasar of visual cues, objects, sounds and unexpected encounters from Southeast Asia.

The Next Generation Brings Its Own Pasar at Muzium Telekom

At Muzium Telekom, students get their turn at PASAR. As part of iNYALA under the Digital Technology Incubator (DTI) programme with the support of Yayasan TM, students from MMU, UNIMAS and The One Academy explore the theme through their own new media works.

Among the highlights are six warung by students from The One Academy, each turned into a different interactive experience. Visitors can play with rojak ingredients that become mixed words inspired by the languages we speak, and see pistachio, matcha and other trending flavours meet traditional favourites, while discovering the stories behind food icons such as the Ramly Burger.

From Dinosaurs to Pasar Exhibition

PASAR also extends beyond the main exhibitions. Already underway at Ombak KLCC and running until 30 October 2026, Malaysian artist Eugene Foo brings his whimsical Saya Seekor Dinosaur universe to IMMERSIOx, imagining a Nusantara-inspired world where humans and dinosaurs live side by side. Younger visitors can add to that world by creating their own imaginary dinosaurs before watching their creatures come to life through projection and digital technology.

From 25 to 27 September 2026, IMMERSIO heads to REXKL for its final weekend, bringing PASAR closer to the marketplace that inspired it. PASAR exhibition gathers independent artists, illustrators, designers, makers and creative collectives with original art, prints, zines, experimental objects and

new media works to browse and discover. The weekend also features artist sharing sessions and audio-visual art performances, extending the conversations and exchanges of PASAR beyond the exhibition floor.

First launched in 2017, IMMERSIO has grown into a platform for Southeast Asia’s digital and new media art scene, bringing emerging and established artists together to experiment, create and connect their works with audiences.

After all, you already know the pasar. Come curious anyway.

IMMERSIO 2026: PASAR is co-organised by Filamen and Pixel World, with the support of Alight ASEAN, Blackbody Emission, Bual Studio, CloudJoi, Digital Tech Incubator (DTI), FabU, Epson, GMBB, Green Room, iNYALA, KLABF, NCWN, Ombak KLCC, Wildwonder Works, Yayasan TM and RUBIX Communications.

For programme updates, follow Filamen on Instagram and Facebook at @wearefilamen.

About The Author

Filamen

See author's posts