IMMERSIO 2026: This Pasar Opens At 11:00 A.M., But Not For Groceries

By Lara Kramer  •  27 Aug 2026 in Events

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If you grew up going to the pasar, you probably remember the soundtrack.

Vendors yelling out prices, plastic bags rustling, multiple languages and dialects flying around at once, and your grandparents telling you not to wander off because you would absolutely get swallowed by the crowd.

This September, those familiar sights, sounds, and slightly chaotic memories are getting a new media art makeover.

IMMERSIO 2026: PASAR, the seventh edition of Filamen’s new media art festival, is taking place across GMBB, Muzium Telekom, and REXKL from 11 to 27 September 2026.

Bringing together more than 100 artists and creative technologists from across Asia, the festival will feature over 70 artworks spanning interactive installations, digital works, projection, visual art, and sculpture.

At its heart is the pasar, that colourful, noisy, occasionally overwhelming place where far more than groceries change hands.

Across Southeast Asia, markets have always doubled as social spaces. People come to bargain, eat, gossip, bump into people they know, and catch up on whatever story has made its way around town that week.

But while most of us are used to seeing the handwritten signs, mismatched colours, hanging plastic bags, and visual chaos as part of everyday life, IMMERSIO 2026 is asking visitors to take another look.

Because what exactly makes something “too pasar” anyway? For IMMERSIO, the answer is that those very things might be what make it interesting.

Among the artworks are some wildly different interpretations of market culture and memory.

Indonesia’s batu akik gemstone craze gets turned into a playable video game, while Singapore’s disappearing wet markets are reimagined through a digital world inhabited by fish-headed vendors. Closer to home, Malaysia’s iconic ikat tepi, that little knot used to secure a plastic bag of kopi or teh, gets its own artistic moment.

The festival brings together artists and collectives from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and beyond, each approaching the idea of PASAR through their own cultural memories and observations.

The main exhibition takes over Level 5 of GMBB, where approximately 45 artworks by both emerging and established artists and collectives will be on display. Curated by Koh Kai Ting, the exhibition is designed to feel a little like wandering through a market itself, moving from one unexpected encounter to another through a mix of visual cues, sounds, objects, and interactive experiences.

Beyond GMBB, Muzium Telekom will spotlight emerging new media practices, including student works from MMU, UNIMAS, and The One Academy. REXKL will host performances and artist sharing sessions during the festival’s final weekend.

There is also something for the kids, or anyone who simply enjoys making dinosaurs for the hell of it. Over at Ombak KLCC, visitors can create imaginary dinosaurs and watch them come to life through projection and digital technology.

First launched in 2017, IMMERSIO has become one of the region’s platforms for digital and new media art, bringing artists and audiences together through technology, experimentation, and some very unconventional ways of looking at the world around us.

For its latest edition, it is looking at something most of us have probably walked through hundreds of times.

The pasar opens at 11:00 a.m. Come curious.

Dates: 11 to 27 September 2026, closed on Mondays
Time: 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Venue: Level 5, GMBB

• Early bird: RM6, available until 2 September
• General admission: RM15
• Group ticket for five people: RM55
• Multiple entry plus an exclusive gift: RM65
• Senior citizens, PWD visitors, and children under 12: Free

Tickets are available via CloudJoi.

PASAR Beyond GMBB

Muzium Telekom, Levels 1 and 2
11 to 27 September 2026
Free admission

REXKL
25 to 27 September 2026
Artist sharing sessions are free, while performances are ticketed

Ombak KLCC
27 August to 30 October 2026
Ticketed event

For more cool stuff, click here.

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