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During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his last significant endeavors. Recognized for pioneering self-destructive creations, Metzger had spent a lifetime to confronting global challenges from peace activism to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a worldwide initiative to remember nature.

“This is my appeal for your engagement in this international summons for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he declared, inviting artists and creatives to stand against the continuing disappearance of living beings. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into realms that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Inception of Nature Remembrance

And so Remember Nature was established, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his last days, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “My advice was – don’t delay. Let’s not wait for financial support or for anyone to authorize this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

A decade on, the project hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but supporters think its influence can still be seen in initiatives like cultural advocacy groups and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their methods. That’s why she is restaging it to mark its 10-year anniversary. Part of the featured creators participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. They have all produced imagery, shared messages, and produced installations set to be unveiled on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is on site in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. She describes, the preparation and sowing sessions have already included learning about mathematics (calculating the gaps in the orchard), biology (discussing the hereditary traits), and geography (mapping the backgrounds of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that produces scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries histories attached. The ancient variety was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more consciously engaged of the environment and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was prompting them, on their next shopping trip, to check the packaging and see the variety and the source. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Across the Country

At the capital, a participant’s project on disappearance will include attendees exploring Tate Modern on a journey to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in modern times. Each glacier will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using invisible ink. When located, a alert will occur and a recitation will be held to commemorate that individual formation.

At the same time, up in a northern town, an artist will be putting on a public show about our alienation from the environment, as well as holding a shared meal, made using regional food. Over in Newcastle, a participant is broadcasting her musical project, in which regional performers undertake a task to perform for vegetation in a green space.

Youth Perspectives

Following this approach, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to fill an art space in children’s artwork that capture their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are impactful because they’re not as restricted as grown-ups’,” she says in her recorded message. “The contributions of youth to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will inspire a feeling of duty from each person. Youth is pure. They have fears about the future. But let’s not make it about anxiety – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also connects with children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is intending to represent an iconic figure. He is also organizing a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his ongoing series over the recent decades. This endeavor commenced following he experienced three incidents of prejudice on a particular day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since grown to cover events experienced 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 short-lived memorial.”

He picked the bloom not just for the clear connection – it has long been a slur – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The project on Remember Nature day is to place blooms at additional sites and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the incidents and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few since I last planted,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and