Design and layout of three zines by artist İz Öztat and researcher Çağla Özbek, published by CUTT PRESS, Berlin, 2026. The publications form part of Es – a zine series initiated by Öztat in 2024 with the support of the Berlin Artistic Research Grant.
Counterdictions is a satirical drama by Özbek that reinterprets the Faustian bargain through the entangled relationship between a cultural worker and a work of art. Here and Now, and After? is the script for a video work by Öztat in the form of a puppet play. Reappropriating the traditions of Kasperle and Karagöz, she uses them as vehicles for political satire and pedagogical inquiry, exploring artistic agency, accountability, and the self’s relation to the Other through the Faustian pact. The publications are accompanied by a third, smaller booklet. In On Faustian Bargains, Implicatedness, Freedom and Collaborative Research, Öztat and Özbek reflect on their collaborative research into the many adaptations and translations of the Faustian bargain and discuss how it has informed their respective artistic practices.