Sebastian Bieniek - Doublefaced No. 10 (8/9)

Sebastian Bieniek (born in Poland in 1975) is famous for works exploring duality and ambivalence, which have gone viral several times since 2013 and have been published by major magazines around the world. According to Spanish VOGUE, Madonna even asked him in 2016 to create the cover for her new album, but the eccentric artist, as so often, declined and preferred to keep to himself. For sale: Original photograph (high-quality fine art print) from Sebastian Bieniek’s Doublefaced series (2013). There are only 9 individually numbered and signed original prints of this work (Doublefaced No. 10). This listing is for number 8/9. Most of the original prints are held in important collections around the world, including 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 directly by the artist as the second-to-last remaining copy. The winning bidder will also receive a certificate of authenticity issued by the artist in their name. _____ Artwork details: - Title: Doublefaced No. 10 (8/9) - Year: 2013 - Size: 57.5 x 44 cm. (There is a 4 cm-wide white border around the photograph. The measurements include the white border.) - Condition: This is a photograph (unmounted and unframed). - Paper: Canson Baryta - Printing method: C-print - Signed: Signed, titled, dated, and stamped at the bottom front in red ballpoint pen _____ Condition of the photograph: very good (undamaged) _____ Shipping: The photograph will be shipped rolled. About the Doublefaced series: The Doublefaced photo series by Berlin-based artist Sebastian Bieniek is unquestionably regarded as one of the most important and influential photographic series of the internet age. It is a perfect example of contemporary art that not only understands the spirit of the modern age but reflects it in its purest form. In an era shaped by digital self-presentation, the constant reinvention of the ego, and the fragmentation of personal identity on social media, Bieniek’s works struck a nerve in society. They captured the deep human need to be both masked and visible amid the digital noise, making the duality of our modern existence visually tangible. The minimalist yet deeply unsettling concept—second faces drawn on models’ cheeks with eyeliner and lipstick—went viral in the 2010s and left a lasting mark on global pop and fashion culture. The immense impact of this artistic impulse, and how perfectly it captured the spirit of the times, can be seen in its powerful influence on world-famous icons. The “Queen of Pop,” Madonna, was so fascinated by the hypnotic imagery that she selected a photograph from the series for the cover of her album Madame X. The concept also left a deep mark on music and pop culture: the iconic idea of the two-faced illusion was copied and presented to millions in the official music video for Pharrell Williams’ hit “Marilyn Monroe.” The series’ most spectacular bridge between avant-garde body art and the world of high fashion was made on the runways of the French capital. Fashion designer Simon Porte Jacquemus recognized the work’s potential to capture the spirit of the times and brought the look to Paris Fashion Week in direct collaboration with Sebastian Bieniek. The collection, inspired by Bieniek’s art, made a huge impact in the fashion world and helped Jacquemus win the prestigious LVMH Special Jury Prize, worth €150,000. Through this fusion of internet phenomenon, pop culture, and haute couture, the Doublefaced series compellingly demonstrated how traditional art can break free of the boundaries of the analog world and become the universal visual language of an entire generation. _____ About the artist: German conceptual artist, painter, and photographer Sebastian Bieniek (1975) is considered one of the most radical boundary-pushers on the contemporary art scene. His entire body of work has been a constant, provocative dance along the razor-thin line between reality and deception. Born in Upper Silesia, Bieniek came to Germany in 1989 as a late repatriate and began his artistic journey at the Braunschweig University of Art. There, he studied fine art under the influence of two radically different figures: world-renowned performance pioneer Marina Abramović and Swiss conceptual artist John M. Armleder. He later transferred to the Berlin University of the Arts, where he completed his studies as a master student, while also studying directing at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin. He began his career in the late 1990s at the legendary Berlin art center Tacheles, and quickly established himself as a major figure. In 2013, he achieved his international breakthrough with the viral photo series Doublefaced, after which prestigious magazines named him one of Berlin’s most influential artists. Early in his career, Bieniek drew attention with actions that deeply unsettled audiences and the traditional art world. Inspired by the physical extremes explored by his mentor Abramović, he used his own body as material, cutting a new wound into his arm each day for several days in an early work to document impermanence physically. Alongside these painful processes, he staged unsettling social experiments in public spaces, laying long stretches of barrier tape without permission to cordon off subway entrances and squares in Berlin. In this way, he demonstrated how blindly people obey visual and state authority. With his 2011 book Realfake, he extended these experiments into the digital realm: by creating dozens of fake profiles, he deliberately manipulated algorithms, the media, and public perception—long before the phenomenon of “alternative facts” reached world politics. The absolute and most radical culmination of this interdisciplinary work was the staging of his own death as a final art performance. Bieniek, who spent his life dissecting the mechanisms of media impact, digital identity, and deception, extended this principle to the ultimate boundary of human existence. He forged and orchestrated news of his own death and accompanied it with conceptual video messages such as his Apology for being dead, sending the art world and the public into a state of shock. With this act, he ventured further across disciplines than any artist before him. He no longer used only canvas, camera, or the living body; instead, he made total disappearance, the play with the afterlife, and the ensuing media hysteria the artwork itself. Bieniek thus proved once and for all that in the age of digital networks, even the boundary between life and death can be manipulated and reshaped—and ultimately made part of a hyperreal performance.

Estimación:1.200€

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