Slavko Petek

Hailing from Zagreb, Croatia, Slavko Petek is an industrial designer in the final year of his Master’s studies, whose practice intentionally transcends the boundaries of traditional product design. Adopting a deeply multidisciplinary approach, Petek operates across a diverse range of scales from high precision industrial design for mass production to scenography and small-scale urban interventions. He established his professional foundation through collaboration with the renowned collective Numen/For Use, where he gained significant experience in the technical and conceptual execution of complex, large-scale spatial installations. This background defines his ability to bridge the gap between rigorous functional engineering and evocative spatial storytelling.

Artist Statement: I bridge industrial precision with spatial storytelling to spark social dialogue. Through ‘The Inversion Vault,’ I use industrial materials to challenge the commodification of essential resources, reframing them as fundamental human rights via spatial intervention.

DXC Artwork Title: The Inversion Vault

Materials: Pvc, PETG, Plastic film, Stainless Steel,

Artwork Statement:

Throughout history, the architecture of power has almost exclusively expressed itself through

the pyramid. By its very nature, this structure accumulates weight, wealth, and authority at a

single point - the apex, while the entire burden rests on a broad, often invisible base. The

Inversion Vault emerges as an act of direct spatial subversion. Rather than following this

archetype, the work physically inverts it, exploring an architecture of distribution over

accumulation. By inverting the pyramid, focus shifts away from the untouchable apex toward

the open void of the interior. In doing so, a symbol of oppression becomes a reservoir for the

commons.

The work interrogates the very essence of what we call a ‘vault.’ In contemporary society, the vault is synonymous with extraction and the protection of private property defined by impenetrable walls and isolation. This intervention redefines it as a place of reciprocity. Inside this floating structure, you won’t find gold or currency. Instead, the interior holds artifacts representing the foundations of a healthy society: the right to resources (water, energy, seeds), data dignity (control over one’s digital footprint), and care labour (the unpaid work that sustains communities). The central question the work poses is: what would happen to our ‘economic metabolism’ if value were measured by the depth of our mutual connectivity rather than the volume of accumulated capital?

The installation functions as a working prototype of a new social contract. Entering this

space is not an act of transaction, but a ritual of recognizing one’s role within a shared

ecosystem. The design goal was never simply to create an aesthetic object, but a spatial

event that compels the viewer to question the fixed hierarchies we so often accept as natural

laws, even though they are human constructs. The Inversion Vault suggests that utopia is not a fixed destination, but a process of constant realignment of power. Stability here comes not from the weight of the apex, but from the equilibrium of a community actively sustaining the system together.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slavko-p-6a0a35295

Instagram: @slavko_slavko

DXC 2026 will open with Utopia Rewired: Creative Visions for Democratic Futures, a bold new exhibition spotlighting emerging artists from Canada and the European Union, on April 16. Presented in partnership with the European Union through its Delegation to Canada, the exhibition invites audiences to explore how art can reimagine democratic life—and the economic systems that shape it.