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In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his final major projects. Famed for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to responding to global challenges from nuclear disarmament to ethical eating. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a global day of action to celebrate the natural world.

“This is my appeal for your participation in this international summons for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he stated, inviting cultural workers to oppose the steady eradication of species. “The mission is to help the public recall of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

And so the Nature Remembrance initiative came into being, a day when creatives nationwide developed works to the ongoing environmental crisis. One of the curators, who worked closely with Metzger in his last days, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “He had a strong sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – let’s not mess around. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, Remember Nature may not have triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but organizers feel its legacy can still be seen in campaigns like Culture Declares and climate activism networks, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their work. That’s why she is restaging it to mark its 10-year anniversary. Included in the featured creators participating now are A Man Called Adam and other notable figures. They have all designed posters, shared messages, and developed pieces set to be presented on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

When speaking to one participant, she is out in a field in a rural area, assisting with planting apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and half educational workshop. According to her, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (spacing the planting intervals), genetics (exploring the apple’s DNA), and geography (tracing the stories of how different apples arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that releases crimson liquid

“Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries background narratives. The historical cultivar was imported by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that dropped off a tree and struck the physicist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of nature and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was urging them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see the variety and their origin. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Cultural Projects Nationwide

At the capital, Youngsook Choi’s project on disappearance will engage visitors searching a major gallery on a quest to find the ice masses that have been disappeared in recent years. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. Whenever one is found, a alert will occur and a reading will be held to commemorate that individual formation.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, a creative will be presenting a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as holding a communal feast, made using organic, local produce. Further north, a participant is broadcasting her musical project, in which local singers 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 scheduled date she is planning to cover an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that document their aspirations and concerns for the future. “Children’s words and images are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as mature perspectives,” she says in her recorded message. “The contributions of youth to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will inspire a sense of responsibility from each person. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about fear – it should be about optimism and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his Birds Can Fly involves illustrating avians and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is aiming to address a local symbol. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. The project started after he experienced multiple occurrences of discrimination on a particular day. In response, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the location of every incident and photograph it – the project has since expanded to cover events experienced by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the pansy not just for the clear connection – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The plan on 4 November is to plant pansies at new locations and also renew the tributes in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the itinerant journey about the events and his recollections. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Advancing Positively

Harfleet hopes his work – and