Artist and photographer Justin Aversano, renowned for his acclaimed "Twin Flames" project, has embarked on his most ambitious journey yet with "Moments of the Unknown," a comprehensive visual love letter to humanity spanning all seven continents. Armed with only a camera, intuition, and an unspoken promise to document human connection across the globe, Aversano has created a living archive of global intimacy that challenges viewers to see the universal bonds that unite us all.
The project is currently being showcased in two formats at Art Blocks Marfa Weekend this month. Visitors can experience both a physical exhibition at Glitch Gallery in Marfa, Texas, and a documentary screening at the nearby Crowley Theater. The dual presentation allows audiences to engage with Aversano's work both as static visual art and as a dynamic audio-visual experience.
Initially conceived as a silent meditation on human connection, the project evolved dramatically during its creation. "It was mostly just gonna be no sound," Aversano recalls. However, as he traveled between continents, the work transformed into a sophisticated audio-visual experiment that weaves together hundreds of brief video portraits with carefully curated soundscapes drawn from one of humanity's most iconic expressions of love and hope.
The soundtrack features sounds exclusively sourced from the "Voyager Golden Record," a phonograph record containing sounds and images of Earth that was assembled by a NASA committee chaired by Carl Sagan and launched into space in 1977. "I wanted to reintegrate that historical movement in culture and space exploration and use it as the soundtrack for a film about cultures and continents around the world and how they're connected," Aversano explained. Each location in his global journey resonates with its own fragment from these historic recordings, including voices speaking in 55 languages and United Nations delegates each saying just one word: "Hello."
The film builds to its powerful conclusion with the line "Hello from the children of planet Earth," creating a circular narrative that connects earthbound humanity with its cosmic aspirations. This thoughtful integration of space exploration history with contemporary global documentation creates a unique perspective on human unity and our shared planetary identity.
"Moments of the Unknown" explores love in its broadest sense, extending far beyond romantic relationships to encompass family bonds, friendship, and universal oneness. "What I discovered while shooting is that love has so many forms," Aversano noted. "It became about unity, closeness, intimacy. The love of humanity and recognizing we are one human family." His approach to finding subjects was entirely organic, waking each morning without predetermined goals or diversity checkboxes, simply allowing human encounters to unfold naturally.
The project captures an extraordinary range of subjects including children, elders, strangers, twins, and entire families, each contributing their unique story to the larger narrative of human connection. Even the recurring heartbeat sounds in the soundtrack carry personal significance for the artist. "That's family," he explained, referring to recorded heartbeats of his father, sister, and brother during "moments where I felt presence and love."
True to his artistic practice, Aversano subtly inserts himself into the work while maintaining focus on his subjects. His first appearance is a brief cameo at a barbershop in New Orleans, where he describes his role as simply wanting "to be a prop in her portrait." Another self-portrait was captured at Stonehenge on his birthday, serving as what he calls an "Easter egg" that creates a bridge to his earliest work, "The Birthday Project," effectively tying together a decade of his artistic evolution.
The project also connects to Aversano's breakthrough work, "Twin Flames," as twins naturally appeared throughout his global journey. "I always run into twins," he laughs, referencing the project that gained significant attention when the photographs of twin siblings were minted as NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain in 2021. Those tokenized photographs eventually reached Christie's auction house and attracted celebrity collectors including Snoop Dogg and Gary Vaynerchuk. "I never say no," he admits when twins cross his path. "It's twin flames."
The most challenging segment of his journey took place in Antarctica, which required "a two-day boat from Argentina. Seven days there, two days back." When asked to identify his favorite country from the extensive travels, Aversano responded philosophically: "You can't choose a favorite when it's all one," reinforcing the project's central theme of global unity.
Aversano completed the shooting two years ago and has developed an innovative release strategy that mirrors the original timeline of creation. He releases each portrait and video on the same calendar day it was originally captured, creating a year-long journey that began on April 8 and will conclude on April 7, 2026. Each evening, he writes a diary-like entry about the person he encountered that day, adding layers of personal reflection to the visual documentation.
The project has also embraced digital innovation through NFT auctions, with Aversano selling each daily portrait as a single-edition NFT without missing a single day. At 12 PM ET daily, he hosts X Spaces sessions to discuss the day's auction, creating ongoing community engagement around the work. This consistent schedule demonstrates his commitment to the project's temporal structure and audience engagement.
When reflecting on the project's impact and his recent emotional reception in Marfa, Aversano's focus remains on authentic human connection rather than commercial success. "Did you feel something?" he asks when discussing what audiences should take from the film. "That's all I want." His response to the overwhelming reception in Marfa was equally heartfelt: "I feel blessed, grateful. What more can you ask?" This approach reflects his broader artistic philosophy of prioritizing emotional resonance over traditional metrics of success or legacy building.
