KATEŘINA PROCHÁZKOVÁ

I Play Pokémon Go Every Day

Drawing and Printmaking Studio

Your work focuses on the phenomenon of collecting, along with many other interesting topics – the transformation of symbolic value into exchange value, self-identification, and so on. But I cannot help but ask you a personal question: do you collect Pokémon cards? And do you really play Pokémon Go every day?
I approach Pokémon cards more from the perspective of a third parent. They serve as a common topic for communication between me and my stepson. I sometimes feel bad about constantly buying more Pokémon packs, but I also realize that they provide a shared topic of conversation at home, like which type of Pokémon is best, the most expensive, and what can be traded with classmates. I sometimes see people in Lužánky, aged ten to forty, staring at their phones and occasionally tripping over something. They are playing Pokémon Go, catching Pokémon: they are walking through the park, but perceive it through the virtual world of Pokémon, which I find fascinating. My project is another layer of a fictional world where I have the Pokémon I made battle real social problems. In this sense, it is true that I Play Pokémon Go Every Day.

Your comparison of the Pokémon concept (training, upgrading, and evolution) with the topic of biopolitics very interesting. Can you speak more about this?
My take on biopolitics naturally draws on Michel Foucault, who describes how modern power governs our lives – our bodies, health, reproduction, and performance. And this is precisely where Pokémon begin to function as a model – they are constantly evaluated, trained, and improved to achieve peak performance. I also draw on posthumanist thought, because I perceive Pokémon as hybrid entities straddling the line between organism, technology, and fiction. It is about transforming how we understand the body and identity, and how these categories are shaped by the system and our imagination.

What traits did you assign the Pokémon you created, and how did you develop their fictional world?
I assigned my own Pokémon traits that are more psychological and social in nature. Each of them represents a certain type of experience or power – the experience of queer people, of faith, the pressure of normativity and power mechanisms. Just like the franchise characters, my fictional creatures are defined by type, power, and evolution, and each of them has particular moves that respond to specific situations. 
Aura Drift reacts to expressions of hatred toward queer people, resisting heteronormative subjects and providing a defense mechanism for other Pokémon from the LGBTQ+ group. My fictional creatures also include Sanctilume (a mechanism of faith), Glowli (a hallucinogen, a personal protective mechanism, empathy, and shared vulnerability), and Grawemarch (a heteronormative, masculine character).

photo: Polina Davydenko