Doublefaced 2013.

Doublefaced by Sebastian Bieniek, 2013. Series of 52 Photographs.

This is the first series from the field of "Face-Paint" that Sebastian Bieniek made, a combination of technics known from (portrait) painting and photography.

Best known photographs in the internet

The "Doublefaced" is splitted in "Doublefaced 2013" and "Doublefaced 2015".

It is a serial of photographs by Sebastian Bieniek. It started in august 2013, went after just a few weeks viral and become one of the best known memes of the years 2013-2016.

Here you can see the 52 "Doublefaced 2013" photographs.

48 of theme were made in Berlin, two in Brandenburg and two in Barcelona. On the most photographs is modeling the "Doublefaced Girl" despite of three photographs on which you can see Sebastian Bieniek's son.

It started when the six years son of the artist got sick.

The first photograph of the serial was a photograph of the six years young son of Sebastian Bieniek ("Doublefaced No. 1"). He was at that day sick, so he made a "sad" face. After two hours of silent sitting his father asked him to draw a smile on his face. This was the first "Doublefaced" photograph.

Doublefaced No. 1 - No. 9

Shooted in Hong-Kong, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, Munich and Italy

Meanwhile the serial contains exactly 100 photographs made in Berlin, Barcelona, Paris, Munich, Italy and Hongkong. Some of the models are amateurs, some professional models and also celebrities like for example Joey Jung, who is the most popular female singer in Hongkong.

100 Photographs is enough!

Sebastian Bieniek said 2016 that 100 photographs is enough (52 made in 2013 and 48 made in 2015), so he will not continue to work on the serial but of course vary the theme and technic when making other works from his oevre that he calls Photo-Paint and splits in "Face-Paint", "Body-Paint" and "Set-Paint".

Doublefaced No. 10 - No. 18

Exhibited in New York, London, shown in TV in Japan and Europe. Published in VOGUE, Harper's Bazaar, Interview Magazine...

The photographs were shown in galleries, museums and art fairs in New York, London, Berlin, Hongkong, Paris, Bahrain, Belgrad, Warsaw, Leipzig, Budapest, Madrid, Ecuador and in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Dokumentations about it were shown on the biggest europaen culture TV arte, the biggest german broadcast channell ARD, on japanese and also on Hong-Kong TV.

They were also printed in the Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Marie Claire and Andy Warhol's Interview Magazine.

Doublefaced No. 19 - No. 27

Strange feelings to the viewer

"They have become one of the most popular memes recently; as is usually the case the reason is the originality of the idea (although cubists would probably have something to say about that) and its implementation and, possibly the power of the social networks and particularly Facebook. They are the portraits of the series “Doublefaced” by Sebastian Bieniek from Berlin that have managed to collect more than 50,000 likes and make the 38 year-old artist famous, at least online.

Not a real human being but a store-window mannequin.

Mr. Bieniek’s tools are an eye liner, a lipstick and a camera: he uses the first two to paint on the side of his model’s face another (or another half) face and the third to take the picture he will later upload on the Internet (the whole project is exhibited there). By combing the model’s hair accordingly, he gives the sense that the model has two faces, that its face is in a bizarre angle or that it is not a real human being but a store-window mannequin.

Bizzare and disturbing

Although each one of the pictures in “Doublefaced” can stand on its own, arousing strange feelings to the viewer –the adjective “bizarre” I used before is the best word I can think of, perhaps together with the adjective “disturbing”- the German artist presents them as a series that records the life of this “doublefaced” girl while she does simple, everyday things: sleeping, smoking, shopping or riding the subway. And it is this sense, that this person is next to us, or that it is one of us that makes the images more powerful and cause us to think how many of us live two-faced lives."

Published on http://theartfoundation.metamatic.gr

Written by Grigoris Miliaresis 2.10.2013

Doublefaced No. 28 - No. 36

Just like her hybrid form, left mixed emotions by her believable presence

"The images of the dual-faced subject are both eye-catching and, at times, terrifying. She seems to be an experiment gone awry and set loose in public and private spaces. Just like her hybrid form, one is left feeling mixed emotions by her believable presence. Duality and illusion are strong thematic elements of the series that does a brilliant job of tricking the eye. The model’s hair also plays a large part in the effective illusion, separating the two faces or simply framing the one faux face."

By http://mymodernmet.com Sept. 25.2013

Doublefaced No. 37 - No. 45

"Doublefaced Girl" hype inspires Pharrell Williams to his "Girl" (2014) album?

2014 a "Doublefaced Girl" in an identic pose and hair like Bieniek's "Doublefaced No. 4" appeared in the "Marilyn Monroe" music video (timecode 4:13) from the album "Girl" by Pharrell Williams. Several international magazines wrote afterwards of plagiarism on the original "Doublefaced Girl" photography by Sebastian Bieniek and critisized the music industry for using the "fruits of other peoples work".

Doublefaced becomes "Top 10 Body Art 2013", "Top 2013 Photography" and "Strangest Photo Of The Year 2013"

In january 2014 "Doublefaced 2013" became "Top 10 Body Art 2013" by designboom magazine (the world largest magazine for art and architecture). At the same time it was choosen as "Top 2013 photography" by the netcollector magazine and as "Stranges Photo Of The Year 2013" by the Business Insider Magazine Australia.

Doublefaced No. 46 - No. 52

2015 Sebastian Bieniek made another 48 Doublefaced photographs which became part of the "Doublefaced 2015" series.

Please click here to see "Doublefaced 2015".

arte Journal documentation about Sebastian Bieniek and his work, 2016.