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During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger launched one of his final significant endeavors. Famed for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to addressing global challenges from peace activism to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he issued a call for a global day of action to remember nature.

“I call upon you for your participation in this global appeal for a day of action to commemorate our planet on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, encouraging artists and creatives to stand against the continuing disappearance of living beings. “The mission is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Nature Remembrance

And so Remember Nature was established, a day when artists across the country created responses to the unfolding climate catastrophe. An organizer, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, notes his sense of urgency. “I sensed a profound sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – we must act now. We shouldn’t hold back for financial support or for anyone to green light this. Let’s just do it.”

Ten Years On

Ten years later, Remember Nature may not have incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its impact can still be seen in movements like cultural advocacy groups and environmental protests, as well as in how artists approach the environmental impact of their practices. For this purpose she is restaging it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Among the featured creators participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. They have all created visual art, made video appeals, and developed pieces set to be presented on November 4, 2025.

Sowing Change

Interviewing the artist, she is working outdoors in the countryside, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and somewhat instructive. She describes, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (calculating the distances between trees), science (exploring the hereditary traits), and origins (tracing the journeys of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the Duck’s Bill,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice. Every one carries histories attached. The ancient variety was brought over by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that descended from a tree and hit Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the power we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was prompting them, on their next shopping trip, to read the label and see the variety and the source. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Cultural Projects Throughout Britain

In London, one artist’s project on disappearance will include attendees searching Tate Modern on a journey to find the frozen formations that have been disappeared in recent years. Each glacier will be drawn on the museum surfaces using ultraviolet markers. Each discovery, a bell will ring and a reading will be performed to remember that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in another location, an artist will be putting on a public show about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a community dinner, cooked from sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, Uta Kögelsberger is streaming her musical project, in which regional performers undertake a task to use music to heal flora in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Young Insights

Following this approach, another participant will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to decorate an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their hopes and fears for the future. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “The contributions of youth to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will stimulate a sense of responsibility from everyone. Children are innocent. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about anxiety – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also resonates for children. Drawing on past experience, his avian project involves illustrating avians and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is planning to address an iconic figure. He is also conducting a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his long-term work over the last two decades. This endeavor began when he endured multiple occurrences of discrimination on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since grown to include incidents shared by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the flower 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 contemplative, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The plan on the event day is to place blooms at new locations and also renew the tributes in places he has previously memorialised, all the while talking to those on the itinerant journey about the incidents and his personal experiences. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

The artist wishes his work – and