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Back in 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate important works. Famed for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to addressing global challenges from peace activism to ethical eating. In a brief video message, he requested support for a international event to honor the environment.

“I call upon you for your engagement in this global appeal for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, inviting artists and creatives to oppose the continuing disappearance of species. “Our task is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into domains that are naturally imaginative.”

The Birth of Nature Remembrance

Thus Remember Nature was established, a day when creatives nationwide developed works to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who supported Metzger in his later life, remembers his sense of urgency. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – don’t delay. Let’s not wait for funding or for anyone to green light this. Take action immediately.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, the project hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its legacy can still be seen in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how makers handle the environmental impact of their methods. For this purpose she is relaunching it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Included in the 18 lead artists participating now are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. They have all designed posters, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be presented on November 4, 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing the artist, she is working outdoors in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a coiled garden. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and somewhat instructive. As she explains, the preparation and sowing sessions have already included learning about measurements (calculating the planting intervals), biology (studying the apple’s DNA), and geography (researching the stories of how different apples were introduced to England).

A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that releases crimson liquid

“A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties,” she explains. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. Each has stories behind them. The historical cultivar was introduced by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that descended from a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more actively aware of the environment and the power we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, on their next shopping trip, to look on the bag and see the variety and the source. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

Within the city, one artist’s work about extinction will involve participants exploring Tate Modern on a quest to find the ice masses that have been lost in modern times. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the exhibition spaces using invisible ink. When located, a chime will sound and a reading will be performed to commemorate that specific ice mass.

Meanwhile, up in Barrow-in-Furness, an artist will be hosting a free exhibition about our disconnection from the land, as well as organizing a communal feast, cooked from sustainable ingredients. In another city, an artist is broadcasting her environmental performance, in which local singers embark on a mission to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to fill a cultural venue in children’s artwork that document their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as mature perspectives,” she says in her recorded message. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and it may provoke a sense of responsibility from each person. Youth is pure. They have fears about the future. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about positivity and our responsibility that they have a tomorrow.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’s work also appeals to children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is planning to tackle an iconic figure. He is also organizing a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. That ongoing series started after he endured three incidents of discrimination on a particular day. In response, 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 place the plants there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Apparently pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

Harfleet chose the pansy not just for the clear connection – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The project on 4 November is to place blooms at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the events and his recollections. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

Harfleet hopes his work – and