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Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger launched one of his final important works. Recognized for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to addressing societal issues from nuclear disarmament to ethical eating. In a brief video message, he made a plea for a international event to remember nature.

“I call upon you for your engagement in this international summons for a day of action to reflect on the environment on 4 November 2015,” he declared, inviting makers and thinkers to resist the continuing disappearance of living beings. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into territories that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Birth of Environmental Reflection

In this way Remember Nature was established, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the ongoing environmental crisis. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his later life, notes his feeling of immediacy. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – don’t delay. Let’s not wait for funding or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, the initiative hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be seen in initiatives like cultural advocacy groups and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the sustainability of their practices. For this purpose she is reviving it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Included in the featured creators participating now are Cornelia Parker and prominent artists. All participants have designed posters, made video appeals, and developed pieces set to be presented on November 4, 2025.

Sowing Change

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is on site in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. She describes, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (calculating the planting intervals), genetics (studying the apple’s DNA), and geography (tracing the stories of how distinct varieties were introduced to England).

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

“Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties,” she explains. “We have one apple that releases red juice. They all have stories behind them. The ancient variety was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more thoughtfully connected of nature and the control we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, next time they were out, to read the label and see their names and their origin. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

Within the city, one artist’s project on disappearance will include attendees searching Tate Modern on a journey to find the ice masses that have been lost in modern times. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the exhibition spaces using special pens. Each discovery, a chime will sound and a performance will be performed to honor that individual formation.

At the same time, up in Barrow-in-Furness, a creative will be hosting a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as holding a shared meal, made using organic, local produce. Over in Newcastle, an artist is streaming her environmental performance, in which local singers undertake a task to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, another participant will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to fill an art space in youth creations that express their aspirations and concerns for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as grown-ups’,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and it may provoke a sense of responsibility from everyone. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about worry – it should be about optimism and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

A participant’s work also connects with children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves illustrating avians and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is planning to address an iconic figure. He is also organizing a walking tour of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. That ongoing series started after he faced several events of discrimination on a single day. In response, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and record it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences shared by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “It seems birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the direct association – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – 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 negative trait,” he says.

The plan on Remember Nature day is to plant pansies at additional sites and also replant flowers in places he has previously memorialised, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the incidents and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few following earlier installations,” he says with regret.

Advancing Positively

He desires his work – and