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During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger initiated one of his final significant endeavors. Recognized for pioneering auto-destructive art, Metzger had spent a lifetime to responding to human struggles from peace activism to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on the fourth of November, 2015,” he stated, urging cultural workers to resist the steady eradication of species. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so art will enter domains that are inherently creative.”

The Inception of Environmental Reflection

Thus Remember Nature was born, a day when artists across the country created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. One of the curators, who cared for Metzger in his last days, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – don’t delay. Let’s not wait for financial support or for anyone to authorize this. We should proceed.”

A Decade Later

After ten years, the project hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its influence can still be felt in campaigns like Culture Declares and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the environmental impact of their practices. For this purpose she is restaging it to mark its ten-year mark. Part of the 18 lead artists involved this time are Yu-Chen Wang and other notable figures. Each has produced imagery, made video appeals, and created artworks set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Sowing Change

Interviewing the artist, she is working outdoors in the countryside, assisting with planting apple trees that will create a coiled garden. Working with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already included learning about maths (spacing the distances between trees), science (discussing the apple’s DNA), and origins (mapping the stories of how different apples came to the UK).

Several the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels 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 produces crimson liquid. Every one carries stories behind them. The decio apple was imported by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that descended from a tree and hit the physicist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more actively aware of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, when they go shopping, to check the packaging and see the variety and the source. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Artistic Responses Nationwide

Within the city, Youngsook Choi’s project on disappearance will involve participants searching Tate Modern on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been vanished in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the museum surfaces using special pens. When located, a alert will occur and a recitation will be held to commemorate that specific ice mass.

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, prepared with regional food. Over in Newcastle, an artist is broadcasting her environmental performance, in which community vocalists embark on a mission to perform for vegetation in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to decorate Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in children’s artwork that document their dreams and worries for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are impactful because they’re not as restricted as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something truly special and perhaps it can provoke a awareness of obligation from us all. Youth is pure. They have anxieties about what’s next. But it isn’t meant to be about anxiety – it should be about positivity and us ensuring that they get a future.”

Tributes and Thoughts

A participant’s work also resonates for children. Drawing on past experience, his Birds Can Fly involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for the initiative he is intending to tackle an iconic figure. He is also organizing a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. That ongoing series commenced following he experienced several events of prejudice on a single day. In response, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the spot where it happened and record it – the project has since grown to cover events reported by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Apparently birds consume them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

Harfleet chose the flower not just for the direct association – it has long been a slur – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The plan on Remember Nature day is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also renew the tributes in places he has previously memorialised, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the incidents and his personal experiences. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Advancing Positively

The artist wishes his work – and