Sebastian Bieniek (1975) - Doublefaced No. 9 (7/9)

Sebastian Bieniek (born 1975 in Poland) is famous for works in the context of duality and ambivalence which since 2013 have gone viral several times and have been published by the largest magazines around the world. According to Spanish VOGUE magazine, even Madonna asked him in 2016 to make her new album cover, but the eccentric artist, as so often, refused and preferred to stay by himself.

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For sale:

Original photography (high-quality fine art print) from Sebastian Bieniek's Doublefaced series.
There are only 9 individually numbered and signed originals of this piece (Doublefaced No. 9). Here, 7/9
7 of the originals are in important collections worldwide. Among them in the USA, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Spain, the Kingdom of Bahrain, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Hong Kong.
This work is being sold (as the second-to-last remaining) directly from the artist.
The auction winner will receive a certificate of authenticity issued in the artist’s name.

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Details of the artwork:
- Title: Doublefaced No. 9 (7/9)
- Year: 2013
- Size: 58 x 42 cm. (There is a 5 cm wide white border around the photo. The measurements include the white border)
- Condition: Photo (not mounted and not framed)
- Paper: Baryta Canson
- Creation method: C-Print
- Signed: Yes, multiple times. At the lower left front there is a quick signature. On the front right there is another signature in printed letters, titled and stamped. On the back there is also labeling and signature.

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Condition:

Good.
There is a taped-over area on the back. This is the case for all photos like this that were exhibited in 2016 at PUCE (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador) Quito/Ecuador, where Sebastian Bieniek held a teaching post. With the tape, the signature was covered over and the photo was de-originalized to be re-originalized (newly signed and labeled) after the exhibition. The reason was that the artist was not sure whether the works would safely return from South America, and he did not want to risk losing the originals. They did, however, return safely.

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Shipping:

The photo will be shipped rolled.

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About the Doublefaced Series:

The Doublefaced photographic series by Berlin-based artist Sebastian Bieniek is undisputedly one of the most important and influential photo series of the internet era. It is the perfect example of contemporary art that not only understands the modern zeitgeist but reflects it in its purest form. In an era dominated by digital self-presentation, constant reinvention of the ego, and the fragmentation of one’s identity on social media, Bieniek’s works hit a nervous core of society. His works captured the deep human need to be simultaneously masked and visible in the digital noise, making the duality of our modern existence visually tangible.

The minimalist yet deeply disturbing concept – second faces drawn on models’ cheeks with eyeliner and lipstick – went viral in the 2010s and left a lasting mark on the global pop and fashion world. How strongly this artistic impulse struck the pulse of the times is shown by its enormous pull on world-famous icons. Madonna, the “Queen of Pop,” was so captivated by the hypnotic visual language that she chose a photo from the series for the cover of her album Madame X. The concept also left deep traces in music and pop culture: in Pharrell Williams’ official music video for Marilyn Monroe, the iconic idea of the two-faced illusion was copied and presented to millions.

Perhaps the most spectacular bridge between avant-garde body art and the high-fashion world was forged on the runways of the French capital. Fashion designer Simon Porte Jacquemus recognized the zeitgeist potential of the works and brought the look to Paris Fashion Week in direct collaboration with Sebastian Bieniek. The Bieniek-inspired collection hit the fashion world like a bomb and helped Jacquemus win the prestigious LVMH Prize for Young Designers worth 150,000 euros. Through this symbiosis of internet phenomenon, pop culture, and haute couture, the Doublefaced series demonstrated impressively how traditional art can break the boundaries of the analog and become the universal visual language of an entire generation.

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About the artist:

The German conceptual artist, painter, and photographer Sebastian Bieniek (born 1975) is regarded as one of the most radical border-crossers in the contemporary art scene. His entire body of work has been a permanent, provocative dance on the razor-thin line between reality and deception.

Born in Upper Silesia, Bieniek moved to Germany in 1989 as a late resettler and began his artistic path at the Braunschweig University of Art. There he studied Fine Art under the extremes of influence: the world-renowned performance pioneer Marina Abramović and the Swiss conceptual artist John M. Armleder. Later he transferred to the Berlin University of the Arts, where he completed his studies as a master student, while simultaneously pursuing directing studies at the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin. His career began in the late 1990s at the legendary Berlin art space Tacheles, from which he quickly grew into a prominent figure. In 2013, the viral Doublefaced photo series brought him international breakthrough, after which renowned magazines named him one of the most influential artists in Berlin.

Early in his career Bieniek attracted attention with actions that deeply unsettled the public and the traditional art world. Inspired by the bodily limits explored by his mentor Abramović, he used his own body as material and, in an early work, cut a new wound into his arm daily for days to document vanishing physically. Alongside these painful processes, he staged unsettling social experiments in public spaces by laying long stretches of barrier tape without permission to seal subway entrances or squares in Berlin. This demonstrated how blindly people obey visual and state authority. With his 2011 book Realfake, he extended these experiments to the digital space: by creating dozens of fake profiles, he manipulated algorithms, media, and public perception long before the phenomenon of “Alternative Facts” reached world politics.

The absolute and radical pinnacle of this interdisciplinary output was the staging of his own death as a final art performance. Bieniek, who throughout his life dissected the mechanisms of media impact, digital identity, and deception, extended this principle to the ultimate boundary of human existence. He forged and orchestrated reports of his own death and accompanied this with conceptual video messages such as his Apology for being dead, leaving the art world and the public in a state of shock. With this act, he moved interdisciplinary beyond what any other artist had done before him. He no longer used only canvas, camera, or the living body, but elevated total disappearance, play with the afterlife, and the ensuing media hysteria to the actual artwork. Bieniek thus finally proved that in the age of digital networks even the boundary between life and death is manipulable, shapeable, and ultimately part of a hyperreal staging.