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Back in 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his last major projects. Famed for pioneering self-destructive creations, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting global challenges from nuclear disarmament to plant-based living. Through a short video message, he made a plea for a global day of action to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your participation in this international summons for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he announced, encouraging artists and creatives to resist the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so art will enter territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Birth of Environmental Reflection

And so the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when creatives nationwide developed works to the ongoing environmental crisis. An organizer, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “There was a profound sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – let’s not mess around. No need to pause for financial support or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

Ten Years On

After ten years, Remember Nature hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but supporters think its influence can still be seen in initiatives like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the eco-friendliness of their methods. That’s why she is reviving it to celebrate its decade milestone. Part of the 18 lead artists involved this time are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. Each has created visual art, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Sowing Change

When speaking to Anya Gallaccio, she is on site in the countryside, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a circular grove. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about measurements (measuring out the planting intervals), genetics (studying the apple’s DNA), and history (mapping the stories of how different apples arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that produces crimson liquid

“Several the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. They all have histories attached. The decio apple was brought over by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that dropped off a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more thoughtfully connected of nature and the control we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, when they go shopping, to read the label and see what they’re called and their origin. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

Within the city, a participant’s project on disappearance will include attendees looking through Tate Modern on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been vanished in recent years. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the museum surfaces using special pens. When located, a chime will sound and a recitation will be performed to remember that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in Barrow-in-Furness, Maddi Nicholson will be hosting a free exhibition about our disconnection from the land, as well as organizing a shared meal, cooked from sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, an artist is streaming her environmental performance, in which community vocalists begin a project to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is planning to decorate Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are impactful because they’re not as trammelled as grown-ups’,” she says in her public appeal. “Young people’s input to the world is something quite unique and perhaps it can inspire a sense of responsibility from everyone. Youth is pure. They have anxieties about what’s next. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about optimism and us ensuring that they have a tomorrow.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Paul Harfleet’s work also appeals to children. Drawing on past experience, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for Remember Nature day he is planning to represent a local symbol. He is also conducting a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. The project commenced following he experienced multiple occurrences of homophobic abuse on a particular day. In response, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the location of every incident and document it – the project has since expanded to cover events shared by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly birds consume them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

He picked the bloom not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The intention on 4 November is to plant pansies at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has honored before, all the while conversing with those on the walking tour about the incidents and his memories of them. “I’ve recorded quite a few since I last planted,” he says sadly.

Moving Forward with Hope

The artist wishes his work – and