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In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his final major projects. Recognized for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting societal issues from nuclear disarmament to vegetarianism. Via a concise video message, he issued a call for a worldwide initiative to honor the environment.

“I call upon you for your engagement in this global appeal for a day of action to reflect on the environment on the fourth of November, 2015,” he announced, encouraging artists and creatives to resist the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “Our task is to make audiences aware of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so art will enter territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

In this way the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his final years, notes his feeling of immediacy. “He had a great 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 sponsorship or for anyone to authorize this. We should proceed.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, Remember Nature hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its influence can still be seen in initiatives like Culture Declares and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their work. This is the reason she is restaging it to mark its 10-year anniversary. Included in the key participants taking part currently are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. All participants have designed posters, made video appeals, and developed pieces set to be unveiled on 4 November 2025.

Planting Hope

In conversation with one participant, she is on site in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and half educational workshop. According to her, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about measurements (calculating the planting intervals), genetics (studying the hereditary traits), and origins (mapping the backgrounds of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that releases red juice

“Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. They all have stories behind them. The historical cultivar was introduced by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that dropped off a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more actively aware of the natural world and the control we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, on their next shopping trip, to check the packaging and see their names and where they were grown. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Cultural Projects Throughout Britain

Within the city, a participant’s Book of Loss will include attendees searching Tate Modern on a journey to find the frozen formations that have been lost in modern times. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the museum surfaces using special pens. When located, a chime will sound and a performance will be held to commemorate that individual formation.

Elsewhere, up in another location, a creative will be presenting a open display about our disconnection from the land, as well as hosting a communal feast, cooked from organic, local produce. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is sharing her musical project, in which regional performers begin a project to perform for vegetation in a green space.

Youth Perspectives

Following this approach, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is aiming to decorate an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that document their hopes and fears for the future. “Youthful expressions are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as mature perspectives,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will provoke a awareness of obligation from us all. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about worry – it should be about positivity and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Another artist’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his feathered initiative involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for the event he is intending to tackle an iconic figure. He is also staging a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the last two decades. That ongoing series commenced following he faced multiple occurrences of discrimination on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since grown to include incidents experienced by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the flower 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 reflective, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The plan on Remember Nature day is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also replant flowers in places he has previously memorialised, all the while conversing with those on the itinerant journey about the events and his recollections. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Advancing Positively

The artist wishes his work – and