For many years between 2012 and 2019 he created again and again one artsy viral hit after the other so that his art got much more attention than those of many formally "established" artists of the so called "official art scene" which only exists on paper and the walls that nobody has ever seen.
Even the superstar Madonna asked him in 2018 for a collaboration but he refused.
But then suddenly in august 2019 something happened and changed!
In august 2019 all Sebastian Bieniek facebook social-media profiles and pages were attacked and without an explanation delated.
Short time later also all wikipedia articles (in for the "western world" relevant languages like english, german, italian, etc.) were also attacked and delated!
Here you can see the "Wikipedia article about Sebastian Bieniek" as it was last time saved before the attack on 22nd of apr. 2019.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Bieniek on internet archive (overview over the years)
- Last (22nd of apr. 2019) saved Sebastian Bieniek Wikipedia article before the attack
Who and why attacked Sebastian?
Screenshoot of the attack on Sebastian Bieniek's wikipedia article in august 2019
Sebastian Bieniek
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sebastian Bieniek (born 24 April 1975) is a German conceptual artist, painter, photographer, performer, author and movie director.[1] According to Global Thought Leader Ranking he was ranked worldwide as the no. 171 of the most influentional "Thought Leaders" in 2018.[2]
In 2015 the theculturetrip.com website chose him as one of the "Top 5 Influential Contemporary Berlin-Based Artists"[3]
Early life and education
Bieniek was born in Czarnowąsy, Upper Silesia/Poland, and until the age of 14 he grew up in the Upper Silesian village of Kup. In 1989 he left Poland as a late repatriate[4] (ger. Spätaussiedler, which means: "people with German origins that came mainly in the 80's and 90's from Poland and Russia to Germany"[5]).
In 1996 he started to study art at the HbK Braunschweig under the Serbian performance artist Marina Abramović and the Swiss conceptual artist John Armleder. In 1998 he changed to UdK Berlin and continued to study art in the class of the German photographer Katharina Sieverding, where he made his first short movie "Zero".[6]
In 2001 he got a grand (residency) of the DFJW in Rennes/France where he spent a half year and took part in a group exhibition called "Aux voyageurs",[7] curated by Bettina Klein. In the same year he graduated at the UdK Berlin.
In 2002 he started to study movie directing at the DFFB Berlin, where he made several movies.[8][9] His 2007 made full-length movie "The Gamblers"[10][11] was part of the official competition of the 10th Shanghai International Film Festival.[12] His 2008 made movie "Silvester Home Run"[13][14][15] was part of the international short-film competition of the Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata[16] and also shown at the Montreal World Film Festival.
Artwork
Bieniek's early works were radical performances, like "Hand Without a Body"[17] (1999) where he made daily for 16 days a cut into his own arm, or "Born to be Boulette"[18] (1999) where he was laying for three days in 500 kg. of raw meat, or "Robbery"[19] (1998) where he made a robbery in a Deutsche Bank as an art performance. Later his work become more and more minimalist and conceptual like the textworks[20] (ger. Textarbeiten) from 2001.
In 2009 (after a break of seven years) he restarted with "Homeland Security",[21] a serial of realistic conceptual paintings and others serials where he combined a painted image with a text.
In 2013 he continued with photography. His 2013 started photo-serial "Doublefaced"[22] became one of the best-known internet memes.[23] It was published by many[24] magazines and widely in social media. Later Bieniek created his own oeuvre around this Painted-Faces[25] where he continued to combine different media, for example painting and drawing and photography and drawing as in the "Facination" series.[26][27]
Simultaneously Bieniek continued to work on his minimalist textworks,[28] performances and paintings.[29] The "Perfect-Circles"[30] and "Multiplications"[31] serial are around 70 paintings with text made between 2013 and 2016. Also in 2008 he made a performance at the Art Forum[32] in Berlin, 2011 in Georgia,[33] 2013 at the Deutsche Bank KunstHalle[34] opening and 2016 in the University Church of Marburg.[35]
Collaborations
In 2013 Bieniek collaborated with the German INTRO music magazine for a photo shoot.[36] In 2015 he made a photo shoot for the Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazine.[37] In 2015 he collaborated with the French fashion designer Simon Porte Jacquemus at the Paris Fashion Week.[38] In 2016 he cooperated with the "Institute for church building and contemporary art" at the University of Marburg when being a part of the Liturgy Specific Art art-performance serial.[35] In 2016 he also cooperated with the director and Head Curator of the MONA Museum (Australia), Olivier Varenne for his online exhibition project at collectionair.com.[39]
Exhibitions
In 1999 Sebastian Bieniek had his first solo exhibition, named "Natural Born Sugareaters",[40] in the Kunsthaus Tacheles (Berlin). In 2000 he participated in the "Festival of Vision"[40] exhibition in the Hong Kong Arts Centre (Hong Kong), and in 2002 he participated in the HICETNUNC[40] exhibition in the Villa Manin (Italy). In 2014 he had a solo exhibition in the Nicola von Senger Gallery[41] (Zürich) and the Ho Gallery[40] in Vienna. In 2016 he had a solo exhibition in the Potemka Contemporary Art Gallery (Leipzig) called "The Imitation of the Imitation",[42] the Fotogalerie Friedrichshain called "The Melancholy of the Elephants"[43] and the "Views"[44] group show by the Bahrain Arts Society in Manama (Bahrain).
Influence
In 2018 Sebastian Bieniek was ranked as the no. 171 in the Global Thought Leader Ranking.[2]
In 2017-2018 the Italian dancers Federica Aloisio and Sabrina Vicari created a dance-show called EIOKA inspired by Sebastian Bieniek's artwork which was shown across Italy and became the winner of the Premio Strabismi 2017[45].
In 2015 theculturetrip.com website choose Sebastian Bieniek as one of the "Top 5 Influential Contemporary Berlin-Based Artists".[3]
During the Paris Fashion Week 2015, the FASHION magazine mentioned Sebastian Bieniek's work as "Best Face Art" at the Paris Fashion Week 2015.[46]
In 2015–2016 the Vogue wrote about two internatianal fashion designers who said that their work was inspired by Sebstian Bieniek (Simon Porte Jaquemus[47] and Inês Marques[48]). Also the Caribbean fashion designer Cecilia Devana[49] said that her collection is inspired by the artist.
2014 several international magazines[50][51][52] wrote that a scene in the "Marilyn Monroe" video of Pharrell Williams is inspired by Sebastian Bieniek's artwork.
In 2013 his artwork became one of the "Top 10 Body Art Stories of 2013"[53] by the designboom magazine. In the same year the designcollector.net magazine selected him as one of "The Best Photographers of 2013".[54]
In 2011 Bieniek made a performance in the ARD TV-show "ES GEHT UM MEIN LEBEN".[55] 2015 Japanese and Hong Kong TV[56] made a documentation and interview with him. 2016 he was documented and interviewed[57] by the Franco-German arte TV.
Sebastian Bieniek, 2010