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During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his final important works. Recognized for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to responding to global challenges from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he issued a call for a worldwide initiative to remember nature.

“This is my appeal for your involvement in this international summons for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he stated, inviting artists and creatives to oppose the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

And so the environmental art day was born, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his last days, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a profound sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – don’t delay. We shouldn’t hold back for funding or for anyone to green light this. Take action immediately.”

After Ten Years

Ten years later, Remember Nature may not have sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its impact can still be seen in movements like artist-led declarations and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the environmental impact of their work. For this purpose she is reviving it to mark its ten-year mark. Included in the featured creators taking part currently are A Man Called Adam and Anya Gallaccio. Each has produced imagery, made video appeals, and produced installations set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is on site in the countryside, assisting with planting apple trees that will develop into a coiled garden. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and somewhat instructive. She describes, the design and cultivation sessions have already involved learning about maths (measuring out the distances between trees), science (studying the apple’s DNA), and geography (mapping the journeys of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice

“A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. They all have background narratives. The historical cultivar was imported by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that dropped off a tree and hit the physicist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more consciously engaged of nature and the control we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was prompting them, on their next shopping trip, to read the label and see what they’re called and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Across the Country

Within the city, Youngsook Choi’s project on disappearance will include attendees searching Tate Modern on a journey to find the ice masses that have been vanished in modern times. Each glacier will be depicted on the museum surfaces using special pens. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a reading will be conducted to remember that individual formation.

Elsewhere, up in a northern town, a creative will be putting on a free exhibition about our separation from nature, as well as holding a shared meal, made using organic, local produce. Over in Newcastle, an artist is broadcasting her environmental performance, in which regional performers undertake a task to use music to heal flora in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, another participant will be working with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is hoping to fill a cultural venue in kids’ letters and drawings that express their dreams and worries for the future. “Children’s words and images are powerful because they’re not as inhibited as mature perspectives,” she says in her recorded message. “The contributions of youth to the world is something quite unique and perhaps it can stimulate a feeling of duty from each person. Kids are unbiased. They have concerns for tomorrow. But this shouldn’t be about fear – it should be about positivity and us ensuring that they see a better world.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Another artist’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves illustrating avians and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is aiming to tackle an iconic figure. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. This endeavor began when he experienced several events of discrimination on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since expanded to cover events reported by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems birds consume them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

The artist selected the flower not just for the clear connection – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The intention on the event day is to plant pansies at additional sites and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the occurrences and his personal experiences. “I’ve recorded quite a few since I last planted,” he says mournfully.

Advancing Positively

Harfleet hopes his work – and