Southeast Asian pasar or market culture will take centre stage at IMMERSIO 2026: PASAR, Filamen’s seventh new media art festival, which runs from Sept 11 to 27 at venues across Kuala Lumpur.
The festival features more than 70 digital and interactive installations, projections, visual works and sculptures by more than 100 artists and creative technologists from across Asia.
GMBB PASAR Exhibition
The main PASAR exhibition at GMBB features more than 45 works curated by Koh Kai Ting, which examine the pasar as a space for commerce, social interaction and shared memory. Highlights include:
- Indonesian artist Rimbawan Gerilya’s Sekarat draws on the rise and decline of the batu akik gemstone craze, presenting the subject as a video game inspired by arcade machines once popular in Indonesian shopping centres.
- Singaporean artist Arron Teo’s WTFish Wonderland ’87 explores disappearing wet markets through a digital environment populated by fish-headed vendors.
- Malaysian collective Lain Main Lab’s The Gatekeeper of Pasar uses surveillance cameras and a photo booth to examine the experience of being observed in public spaces.
- Malaysian artist Aresha Reza’s Ikat Tepi examines the plastic bags and knots associated with takeaway drinks
- Malaysian artist Lee Mok Yee’s When We Touch the Floor considers the role of tikar getah in domestic and communal life.
- Philippine artist Rhaz Oriente’s After Hours Atlas: Makati maps nightlife activity in Makati as a changing constellation.
Works by artists and collectives from Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong are also included.
Student Works
At Muzium Telekom, students from Multimedia University, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and The One Academy are presenting works developed under the iNYALA Digital Technology Incubator programme, with support from Yayasan TM.
The programme includes six student-created warung installations exploring language, food trends and Malaysian food culture.
Other Highlights
The festival also extends to Ombak KLCC, where Malaysian artist Eugene Foo’s Saya Seekor Dinosaur is being presented until Oct 30. The interactive work combines a Nusantara-inspired setting with digital projections and audience-created dinosaur characters.
Meanwhile, at REXKL from Sept 25 to 27, the festival will feature independent artists, illustrators, designers, makers and creative collectives, alongside artist talks and audio-visual performances.
IMMERSIO was first launched in 2017 and has since developed into a platform for digital and new media art in Southeast Asia. For programme updates, follow Filamen on Instagram and Facebook at @wearefilamen.
