The Neon Pulse of the City: Why You Can’t Miss 'Warung Terang' This Weekend
This “modern pasar” format intentionally recreates the lively communal warmth and accessible curiosity of a local night market making high-end digital art freely accessible to everyone.
FORGET the quiet, sterile atmosphere of a traditional art gallery. This weekend, the historic heart of Kuala Lumpur will shed its shadows and trade them for a vibrant digital heartbeat.
Warung Terang, a street-level digital art pasar (market), is back for its final stretch - the first took place last weekend, promising to transform the city’s hidden laneways into a living, breathing canvas.
Created by Filamen in conjunction with KL Festival 2026, this activation is more than just a light show. It is an immersive experience designed to take contemporary art out of the confines of white-walled institutions and place it directly into the bustling heart of the city.
The event offers a rare opportunity for urban rediscovery, allowing visitors to see overlooked heritage architecture dramatically revitalised through light and sound after dark.
While many projection-mapping events are designed to be viewed from afar on towering skyscrapers, Warung Terang brings the magic down to eye level where visitors can walk through, touch and engage with.
Filamen co-founder Abdul Shakir Abu Samah said the concept reimagines the traditional Southeast Asian warung or marketplace. But instead of trading physical goods, the alleyways host an exchange of visual art and regional stories.
This “modern pasar” format intentionally recreates the lively communal warmth and accessible curiosity of a local night market, he said, making high-end digital art freely accessible to everyone.
What makes the activation especially dynamic is its mobile nature. Unlike traditional projection mapping fixed onto large building facades, Warung Terang uses a highly flexible setup. High-lumen projectors and digital installations move across multiple downtown locations throughout the night, allowing the art to interact dynamically with the unpredictable urban environment.
For those curious about the “how” behind the “wow,” the REAVANG platform offers a rare peek behind the curtain. It functions as a live experimental setup — an open technical platform where creatives manipulate audio-visual (AV) software and hardware in real time, directly on the street.
The technical design deliberately removes the distance between the equipment and the public, transforming passive viewing into an immersive technical playground.
“You can walk right up to the artists, ask questions, and see the digital tools in action,” he told Sinar Daily.
Beyond the technology, Shakir said Warung Terang is also a celebration of shared regional identity. Billed as a gathering of “SEA-blings” (Southeast Asian siblings), the event highlights the market as a historical space for cross-border cultural exchange.
The curated lineup bridges emerging and established media artists and visual collectives from across the region:
- From Malaysia: Fairuz Sulaiman of Sekolah Main Wayang, renowned for blending traditional storytelling with multimedia; the prominent local visual collective Fonetikar; and multimedia artist Tan Ji Kean, whose work draws deeply from the Malaysian lived experience.
- From Indonesia: Renowned collectives and artists including The Fox, The Folks, Story of Karana, and the collaborative pairing Hue (Diva & Dyan).
Whether you are a tech enthusiast, a local history buff or a family looking for a unique night out, this is the place to be. Come for the lights, stay for the communal warmth and leave with a completely new perspective on the city you thought you knew.
Event Details:
May 15 (Friday)
- 8pm–9.30pm: PUCKS Coffee
- 10pm–11.30pm: Jalan Sang Guna
May 16 (Saturday)
- 8pm–9.30pm: Muzium Telekom
- 10pm–11.30pm: High Street Studio
May 17 (Sunday)
- 8pm–9.30pm and 10pm–11.30pm: River of Life
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