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Back in 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his last significant endeavors. Famed for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting global challenges from nuclear disarmament to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he requested support for a international event to celebrate the natural world.

“I call upon you for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on the fourth of November, 2015,” he announced, encouraging cultural workers to stand against the continuing disappearance of living beings. “Our responsibility is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore domains that are inherently creative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

Thus the environmental art day came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the escalating planetary emergency. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his later life, recalls his sense of urgency. “I sensed a profound sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – don’t delay. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to authorize this. Take action immediately.”

After Ten Years

A decade on, the project may not have sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its impact can still be seen in initiatives like cultural advocacy groups and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their methods. That’s why she is relaunching it to mark its decade milestone. Part of the key participants participating now are Cornelia Parker and Anya Gallaccio. They have all designed posters, made video appeals, and created artworks set to be presented on November 4, 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

When speaking to one participant, she is out in a field in Kent, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. According to her, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about measurements (calculating the planting intervals), biology (studying the genetic makeup), and origins (mapping the backgrounds of how various cultivars came to the UK).

Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that produces scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. Each has background narratives. The decio apple was introduced by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that fell from a tree and hit Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the control we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was prompting them, when they go shopping, to check the packaging and see their names and the source. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Throughout Britain

Within the city, one artist’s project on disappearance will involve participants searching a major gallery on a journey to find the ice masses that have been lost in recent years. Each glacier will be illustrated on the exhibition spaces using invisible ink. Each discovery, a bell will ring and a performance will be conducted to commemorate that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, a creative will be putting on a public show about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a shared meal, made using sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, Uta Kögelsberger is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which community vocalists embark on a mission to perform for vegetation in a local park.

Youth Perspectives

Following this approach, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is planning to cover Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that express their dreams and worries for the future. “Youthful expressions are compelling because they’re not as inhibited as grown-ups’,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will stimulate a feeling of duty from each person. Kids are unbiased. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about optimism and us ensuring that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

A participant’s work also connects with children. With a background in performance, his Birds Can Fly involves drawing birds and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is aiming to tackle an iconic figure. He is also organizing a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. The project began when he faced several events of homophobic abuse on a particular day. In response, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Apparently pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the flower not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its origin is 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 project on 4 November is to plant pansies at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while discussing with those on the guided walk about the events and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and