Delving into the history of soft power politics and its broader relevance in the scope of contemporary exhibition practices, ‘Symposia’ is Ari Tampubolon’s debut stage. Examining cultural productions of a collectivised image through performance and research, Tampubolon’s work questions the structural exhibition and its formal qualities. There is, however, a tinge of irony that cuts through the spine of this critical approach to culture; pointing towards a fallacy implies an existence within and a thorough understanding of the ecology in which this fallacy is situated. Cognitive. Critiquing institution warrants a critique of the self. Dissonance.‘Symposia’ levels the mechanics behind contemporary art and dialectics at the limelight. Surfacing the moral paradoxes within the dynamics of cultural production, exposing the process of institutionalising the happily resistant artist, who also wants to be like, a really sick dancer.