Sebastian Bieniek - Doublefaced No. 21 (2/9)

Sebastian Bieniek (born 1975 in Poland) is famous for works centered on duality and ambivalence, which have gone viral several times since 2013 and have been published by the world’s largest magazines. 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 photograph (high-quality Fine Art Print) from the Doublefaced series (2013) by Sebastian Bieniek.

There are only 9 individually numbered and signed originals of this work (Doublefaced No. 21). Here 2/9.

Most originals are located worldwide in important collections. Among them in the USA, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Spain, Bahrain, United Kingdom, Japan and Hong Kong.

This work is being sold as the penultimate one remaining directly from the artist.

The auction winner will also receive a certificate of authenticity issued in the artist’s name.

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Artwork details:

LANDSCAPE ORIENTATION! DOUBLE THE SIZE OF PORTRAIT ORIENTATION

- Title: Doublefaced No. 21 (2/9)
- Year: 2013
- Size: 55.5 x 82.5 cm. (There is a 2.8 cm wide white border around the photo. The measurements include the white border)
- Medium: the artwork is a photograph (not mounted and not framed)
- Paper: Baryta Canson
- Production method: C-Print
- Signed: bottom left, signed, titled, dated and stamp

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Condition of the photograph: excellent condition

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Shipping:

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 age. 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 defined by digital self-presentation, the constant reinvention of the ego, and the fragmentation of one’s identity on social media, Bieniek’s works tapped into a nervous core of society. His works captured the deep human need to be masked and visible at the same time in the digital noise, making the duality of our modern existence visually tangible.

The minimalist yet profoundly disturbing concept—second faces drawn on the cheeks of models with eyeliner and lipstick—went viral in the 2010s and left a lasting imprint on global pop and fashion worlds. The power of this artistic impulse to strike a chord with the zeitgeist is evident in its enormous resonance with globally renowned icons. Madonna, the Queen of Pop, was so captivated by the hypnotic visual language that she selected a photograph from the series for the cover of her album Madame X. The concept also left deep marks 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 most spectacularly bridging avant-garde body art and the high-fashion world, the series made its impact on the runways of the French capital. 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 exploded into the fashion world and helped Jacquemus win the prestigious LVMH Special Jury Prize, endowed with 150,000 euros. Through this symbiosis of internet phenomenon, pop culture and haute couture, the Doublefaced series demonstrated powerfully how traditional art can break the boundaries of the analog and become a universal visual language for an entire generation.

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About the artist:

The German conceptual artist, painter and photographer Sebastian Bieniek (1975) is regarded as one of the most radical boundary-crossers of the contemporary art scene. His entire oeuvre has been a perpetual, provocative dance on the razor-thin line between reality and illusion.

Born in Upper Silesia, Bieniek moved to Germany in 1989 as a late repatriate and began his artistic journey at the Braunschweig University of Art. There he studied Free Art under two extremely opposing influences: 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 Meisterschüler, while parallel pursuing film directing studies at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin. His career began in the late 1990s at the legendary Berlin art hub Tacheles, from which he quickly established himself as a fixed figure. In 2013, with the viral photo series Doublefaced, he achieved an international breakthrough, after which renowned magazines named him one of the most influential artists in Berlin.

Early in his career, Bieniek drew attention with actions that deeply unsettled audiences 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 on his arm every day for days to physically document transience. In addition to these painful processes, he staged disturbing social experiments in public spaces, laying long stretches of barrier tape without permission to block subway entrances or squares in Berlin. This demonstrated how blindly people obey visual and state authority. With his 2011 book Realfake, he broadened these experiments to the digital space: by creating dozens of fake profiles, he deliberately manipulated algorithms, media, and public perception—long before the phenomenon of