Tiga Mata – Kota Sepi Kota Sunyi Open Call

Southeast Asian photographers are invited to submit work exploring quietness, solitude, and silence within urban environments for a physical exhibition at GDP Campus in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.

Overview

Kota Sepi Kota Sunyi is a special Tiga Mata photography project developed in conjunction with Sementara: Ahmad Zakii Anwar from the Steve Wong Art Collection, an art exhibition presented at GDP Campus from October 2026 to January 2027. The open call invites photographers across Southeast Asia to explore quietness, solitude, silence and emptiness within the urban environment.

In Malay, kota means city, while sepi and sunyi both speak to states of quietness, but with different shades of meaning. Sepi can suggest solitude, loneliness or the sense of a place being deserted, while sunyi leans towards silence, stillness or the absence of sound and activity. The project takes these different qualities of quietness as its starting point, extending the ideas behind Malaysian artist Ahmad Zakii Anwar's Kota Sepi and Kota Sunyi works beyond Johor Bahru.

"We are looking for photographic work that explores quietness, solitude, silence and emptiness within the urban environment, while encouraging photographers to interpret these ideas broadly," the organisers state. "Silence does not necessarily mean the absence of people. Solitude can exist among thousands. An empty place may still carry evidence of those who have occupied it."

Selected photographs will be curated by Zontiga into a physical exhibition at Level 1, Testing Ground, GDP Campus, presented in conjunction with Sementara. Printing and production costs for works selected for the exhibition will be covered by Zontiga.

Practical Info

The open call is open to both amateur and professional photographers and photo-related artists who are nationals of Southeast Asian countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam. Submitted works must be authored by the submitting photographer or artist. Collaborative work is welcome, provided the nature of the collaboration and authorship is clearly stated. Applicants under the age of 16 must provide written consent from a parent or legal guardian.

Photographers may submit up to five images as JPEG files in sRGB colour space, 3000 pixels on the longest edge, with a maximum file size of 10 MB per image. Images should not include watermarks, borders, photographer names or other identifying information. All entries must be submitted digitally through the Tiga Mata Kota Sepi Kota Sunyi Submission Form.

The submission fee is RM 30. The fee supports the administration, curation and production of the project and exhibition. The submission deadline is 8 November 2026, 23:59 MYT (UTC+8).

Selected photographers will be announced on 19 November 2026. The exhibition will run from 19 December 2026 to 1 February 2027 at Level 1, Testing Ground, GDP Campus.

About Tiga Mata

Tiga Mata is a bi-annual photography zine rooted in Southeast Asia, dedicated to spotlighting the region's vibrant and diverse photographic voices. Its name, meaning "Three Eyes" in Malay, reflects how photographers in the region often navigate the world visually, emotionally, and contextually. Each issue is built around a specific theme and is curated in collaboration with a guest editor, bringing fresh curatorial energy and deeper regional insight.