{"id":253279,"date":"2025-10-26T19:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T19:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/253279\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T19:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T19:55:08","slug":"moments-of-the-unknown-justin-aversano-shares-globetrotting-love-letter-to-humanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/253279\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Moments of the Unknown’: Justin Aversano Shares Globetrotting Love Letter to Humanity"},"content":{"rendered":"

For his latest project, artist and photographer Justin Aversano (of “Twin Flames” fame<\/a>) set out with a simple compass: love. Just a camera, intuition, and an unspoken promise to document humanity across all seven continents.<\/p>\n

The result is \u201cMoments of the Unknown,\u201d a living archive of global intimacy, presented as both an exhibition at Glitch Gallery<\/a> in Marfa, Texas for Art Blocks Marfa Weekend this month and a documentary screening at the Crowley Theater down the road.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Decrypt sat down with Aversano for an inside look at his journey, reflections, and creative process. At first, he said, the film was planned to be a much quieter affair.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was mostly just gonna be no sound,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

But somewhere between continents, the project evolved into an audio-visual experiment, with the hundreds of brief, video portraits stitched together with soundscapes sourced from humanity\u2019s most iconic artifact of love and hope. All of the sounds were pulled from the “Voyager Golden Record,” a phonograph record containing sounds and images of Earth. Carl Sagan was the chair of the NASA committee that assembled the record, which was sent off to space in 1977.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to reintegrate that historical movement in culture and space exploration\u2014and use it as the soundtrack for a film about cultures and continents around the world and how they\u2019re connected,” said Aversano.<\/p>\n

Each location resonates with its own fragment from those sounds, as voices speak in 55 languages; delegates from the United Nations say just one word: Hello.<\/p>\n

It all leads to the film\u2019s final line, \u201cHello from the children of planet Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Love as a universal language<\/p>\n

\u201cMoments of the Unknown\u201d is about love, but not just romance\u2014the type of love extends to family, friendship, and oneness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I discovered while shooting is that love has so many forms,\u201d Aversano said. \u201cIt became about unity, closeness, intimacy. The love of humanity and recognizing we are one human family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aversano said he didn\u2019t scout for subjects for each day\u2019s 10-second portrait video. He woke up each morning unsure of who he\u2019d meet, with no checkboxes for diversity or specific goals in mind\u2014just human encounters as they came. Children, elders, strangers, twins, entire families.<\/p>\n

Thank you to everyone who came out in Marfa to @glitchmarfa<\/a> & @artblocks_io<\/a> to celebrate Moments of the Unknown. <\/p>\n

It meant a lot to connect with each of you through the art and process. To share that feeling of belonging, love, humanity and oneness that this film is expressing. pic.twitter.com\/I2ChUk62xL<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 justinaversano (@justinaversano) October 17, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Even the recurring sound of heartbeats in the soundtrack isn\u2019t abstract.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s family,\u201d he explained. \u201cMy dad, my sister, my brother. Moments where I felt presence and love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Self-portraits, time capsules, and Twin Flames<\/p>\n

Aversano always inserts himself into his projects, but quietly. In this one, his first appearance is a blink-and-you\u2019ll-miss-it cameo at a barbershop in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to be a prop in her portrait,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Another self-portrait appears at Stonehenge, on his birthday\u2014an intentional bridge back to his earliest work, \u201cThe Birthday Project.\u201d He calls it \u201can Easter egg,\u201d a thread tying 10 years of his art together. People reappear over time. They age. Twins show up, old and new.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always run into twins,\u201d he laughs, referencing one of his past projects, Twin Flames\u2014a project that caught fire with collectors after the photos of twin siblings were minted as NFTs<\/a> on the Ethereum<\/a> blockchain in 2021. Those tokenized photos even landed at auction house Christie\u2019s<\/a> and yielded celebrity admirers like Snoop Dogg and Gary Vaynerchuk.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never say no,\u201d he admitted. \u201cIt\u2019s twin flames.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most remote chapter, he shared, was in Antarctica: \u201cA two-day boat from Argentina. Seven days there, two days back.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked which country is his favorite, he answered in the abstract: \u201cYou can\u2019t choose a favorite when it\u2019s all one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aversano shot the project two years ago. He\u2019s releasing each portrait<\/a> and video on the same calendar day it was taken. It began on April 8, and will conclude on April 7, 2026. Every evening, he wrote a diaristic entry about the person he met that day.<\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/p>\n

Aversano is now auctioning each daily portrait<\/a> as a single-edition NFT. He hasn\u2019t missed a day. At 12 pm ET, every day, he hosts an X Spaces to discuss the daily auction.<\/p>\n

When asked what people should take away from the film, Aversano didn\u2019t talk about legacy, sales, or impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you feel something?\u201d he asked. \u201cThat\u2019s all I want.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about the reception he received in Marfa last weekend, where he was moved to tears, he replied: \u201cI feel blessed, grateful. What more can you ask?\u201d<\/p>\n

Daily Debrief Newsletter<\/p>\n

Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.<\/p>\n