'Moments of the Unknown': Justin Aversano Shares Globetrotting Love Letter to Humanity – Decrypt

For his newest undertaking, artist and photographer Justin Aversano (of “Twin Flames” fame) set out with a easy compass: love. Only a digital camera, instinct, and an unstated promise to doc humanity throughout all seven continents.

The result’s “Moments of the Unknown,” a dwelling archive of worldwide intimacy, offered as each an exhibition at Glitch Gallery in Marfa, Texas for Artwork Blocks Marfa Weekend this month and a documentary screening on the Crowley Theater down the street. 

Decrypt sat down with Aversano for an inside have a look at his journey, reflections, and artistic course of. At first, he stated, the movie was deliberate to be a a lot quieter affair.

“It was principally simply gonna be no sound,” he remembers.

However someplace between continents, the undertaking developed into an audio-visual experiment, with the tons of of temporary, video portraits stitched along with soundscapes sourced from humanity’s most iconic artifact of affection and hope. All the sounds had been pulled from the “Voyager Golden Document,” a phonograph report containing sounds and pictures of Earth. Carl Sagan was the chair of the NASA committee that assembled the report, which was despatched off to house in 1977.

“I needed to reintegrate that historic motion in tradition and house exploration—and use it because the soundtrack for a movie about cultures and continents all over the world and the way they’re related,” stated Aversano.

Every location resonates with its personal fragment from these sounds, as voices converse in 55 languages; delegates from the United Nations say only one phrase: Hey.

All of it results in the movie’s last line, “Hey from the youngsters of planet Earth.”

Love as a common language

“Moments of the Unknown” is about love, however not simply romance—the kind of love extends to household, friendship, and oneness. 

“What I found whereas capturing is that love has so many types,” Aversano stated. “It grew to become about unity, closeness, intimacy. The love of humanity and recognizing we’re one human household.”

Aversano stated he didn’t scout for topics for every day’s 10-second portrait video. He wakened every morning uncertain of who he’d meet, with no checkboxes for range or particular targets in thoughts—simply human encounters as they got here. Youngsters, elders, strangers, twins, complete households.

Even the recurring sound of heartbeats within the soundtrack isn’t summary.

“That’s household,” he defined. “My dad, my sister, my brother. Moments the place I felt presence and love.”

Self-portraits, time capsules, and Twin Flames

Aversano all the time inserts himself into his initiatives, however quietly. On this one, his first look is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at a barbershop in New Orleans.

“I simply needed to be a prop in her portrait,” he stated.

One other self-portrait seems at Stonehenge, on his birthday—an intentional bridge again to his earliest work, “The Birthday Mission.” He calls it “an Easter egg,” a thread tying 10 years of his artwork collectively. Individuals reappear over time. They age. Twins present up, previous and new.

“I all the time run into twins,” he laughs, referencing considered one of his previous initiatives, Twin Flames—a undertaking that caught fireplace with collectors after the images of dual siblings had been minted as NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain in 2021. These tokenized images even landed at public sale home Christie’s and yielded celeb admirers like Snoop Dogg and Gary Vaynerchuk.

“I by no means say no,” he admitted. “It’s twin flames.”

Essentially the most distant chapter, he shared, was in Antarctica: “A two-day boat from Argentina. Seven days there, two days again.”

When requested which nation is his favourite, he answered within the summary: “You’ll be able to’t select a favourite when it’s all one.”

Aversano shot the undertaking two years in the past. He’s releasing every portrait and video on the identical calendar day it was taken. It started on April 8, and can conclude on April 7, 2026. Each night, he wrote a diaristic entry concerning the particular person he met that day.

Aversano is now auctioning every every day portrait as a single-edition NFT. He hasn’t missed a day. At 12 pm ET, every single day, he hosts an X Areas to debate the every day public sale.

When requested what individuals ought to take away from the movie, Aversano didn’t speak about legacy, gross sales, or influence.

“Did you are feeling one thing?” he requested. “That’s all I need.”

When requested concerning the reception he acquired in Marfa final weekend, the place he was moved to tears, he replied: “I really feel blessed, grateful. What extra are you able to ask?”