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In 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his final significant endeavors. Recognized for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to responding to human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. Via a concise video message, he issued a call for a global day of action to celebrate the natural world.

“I call upon you for your engagement in this international summons for a day of action to commemorate our planet on the fourth of November, 2015,” he declared, encouraging cultural workers to stand against the steady eradication of species. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into realms that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

And so the Nature Remembrance initiative was born, a day when artists across the country created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his last days, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I urged him – we must act now. No need to pause for financial support or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

Ten Years On

A decade on, the initiative may not have sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its impact can still be seen in initiatives like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the eco-friendliness of their methods. This is the reason she is restaging it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Included in the key participants participating now are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. They have all designed posters, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be presented on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

When speaking to the artist, she is out in a field in the countryside, assisting with planting apple trees that will create a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. As she explains, the planning and planting sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (measuring out the distances between trees), genetics (studying the genetic makeup), and history (mapping the journeys of how different apples came to the UK).

Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that produces crimson liquid

“Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill,” she explains. “We have one apple that releases crimson liquid. Every one carries background narratives. The decio apple was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and hit the physicist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more actively aware of nature and the influence we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, when they go shopping, to read the label and see what they’re called and their origin. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

In London, a participant’s project on disappearance will engage visitors looking through an art institution on a journey to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in the past decade. Each glacier will be depicted on the gallery’s windows and walls using special pens. When located, a alert will occur and a recitation will be conducted to commemorate that specific ice mass.

Meanwhile, up in a northern town, an artist will be hosting a public show about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a communal feast, made using regional food. In another city, an artist is broadcasting her environmental performance, in which community vocalists begin a project to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to fill a cultural venue in children’s artwork that express their aspirations and concerns for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “The contributions of youth to the world is something quite unique and hopefully it will provoke a feeling of duty from us all. Children are innocent. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about anxiety – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

Another artist’s work also resonates for children. Drawing on past experience, his feathered initiative involves drawing birds and then dressing up as them – and for Remember Nature day he is planning to represent Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a walking tour of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his ongoing series over the past twenty years. The project started after he faced three incidents of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and record it – the project has since spiralled to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies 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 clear connection – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The project on 4 November is to place blooms at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has honored before, all the while conversing with 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.

Progressing Optimistically

Harfleet hopes his work – and