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During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger launched one of his ultimate significant endeavors. Known for introducing art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting societal issues from nuclear disarmament to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he requested support for a international event to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this international summons for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he announced, urging makers and thinkers to stand against the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “Our responsibility is to help the public recall of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so art will enter realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Environmental Reflection

In this way Remember Nature was born, a day when creatives nationwide created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. One of the curators, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, notes his drive for action. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – don’t delay. Let’s not wait for financial support or for anyone to authorize this. Take action immediately.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, Remember Nature did not triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its legacy can still be felt in initiatives like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how makers handle the sustainability of their methods. For this purpose she is reviving it to commemorate its decade milestone. Among the featured creators participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. They have all designed posters, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be revealed on 4 November 2025.

Planting Hope

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in the countryside, assisting with planting apple trees that will create a circular grove. Working with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and somewhat instructive. According to her, the preparation and sowing sessions have already included learning about measurements (calculating the distances between trees), genetics (discussing the apple’s DNA), and history (researching the backgrounds of how various cultivars were introduced to England).

Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that produces red juice. Each has histories attached. The ancient variety was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and hit the physicist’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 urging them, when they go shopping, to read the label and see what they’re called and the source. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Throughout Britain

At the capital, one artist’s Book of Loss will include attendees searching a major gallery on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been lost in modern times. All formations will be drawn on the exhibition spaces using invisible ink. Each discovery, a bell will ring and a performance will be conducted to remember that individual formation.

Elsewhere, up in another location, a creative will be hosting a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a shared meal, made using sustainable ingredients. Further north, a participant is broadcasting her environmental performance, in which regional performers begin a project to perform for vegetation in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be engaging schoolchildren – on the actual event she is hoping to fill Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in youth creations that capture their aspirations and concerns for the future. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “What children have to offer to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will stimulate a awareness of obligation from each person. Children are innocent. They have anxieties about what’s next. But let’s not make it about fear – it should be about hope and us ensuring that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

Another artist’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for Remember Nature day he is intending to address Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also organizing a walking tour of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his Pansy Project over the last two decades. The project commenced following he endured multiple occurrences of prejudice on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Apparently wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

Harfleet chose the bloom not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The intention on Remember Nature day is to place blooms at new locations and also renew the tributes in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the occurrences and his personal experiences. “I’ve recorded quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

He desires his work – and