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During 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger initiated one of his final major projects. Recognized for creating art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to addressing societal issues from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a international event to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this international summons for a day of action to commemorate our planet on November 4th, 2015,” he stated, inviting artists and creatives to resist the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “The mission is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so art will enter territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Birth of Environmental Reflection

Thus the Nature Remembrance initiative came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the escalating planetary emergency. An organizer, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, notes his drive for action. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “My advice was – we must act now. We shouldn’t hold back for funding or for anyone to approve this. We should proceed.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, Remember Nature may not have sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but supporters think its influence can still be observed in campaigns like Culture Declares and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the eco-friendliness of their methods. That’s why she is reviving it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Included in the key participants participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. Each has created visual art, made video appeals, and produced installations set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Planting Hope

Interviewing Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and part learning experience. According to her, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (spacing the distances between trees), science (discussing the hereditary traits), and origins (tracing the journeys of how different apples arrived in Britain).

Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces red juice

“A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries histories attached. The decio apple was introduced 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 thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the power we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see the variety and the source. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Cultural Projects Throughout Britain

In London, Youngsook Choi’s Book of Loss will include attendees searching Tate Modern on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been lost in the past decade. Each glacier will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using invisible ink. Whenever one is found, a bell will ring and a performance will be performed to remember that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in a northern town, an artist will be hosting a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a shared meal, made using regional food. Over in Newcastle, a participant is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which community vocalists begin a project to perform for vegetation in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is hoping to decorate Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their aspirations and concerns for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as mature perspectives,” she says in her public appeal. “What children have to offer to the world is something quite unique and hopefully it will stimulate a awareness of obligation from us all. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about worry – it should be about optimism and us ensuring that they get a future.”

Memorials and Memory

Paul Harfleet’s work also resonates for children. As a former drag queen, his Birds Can Fly involves drawing birds and then embodying them – and for the initiative he is planning to represent an iconic figure. He is also conducting a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. That ongoing series started after he faced three incidents of homophobic abuse on a single day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and record it – the project has since expanded to include incidents shared by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the clear connection – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The project on Remember Nature day is to plant pansies at additional sites and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the occurrences and his personal experiences. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

The artist wishes his work – and