🔗 Share this article

In 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate significant endeavors. Recognized for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had spent a lifetime to addressing societal issues from peace activism to ethical eating. In a brief video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“I call upon you for your engagement in this worldwide call for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he announced, inviting makers and thinkers to resist the continuing disappearance of living beings. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into realms that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Birth of Environmental Reflection

Thus the Nature Remembrance initiative came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “My advice was – 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, Remember Nature did not triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but supporters think its legacy can still be seen in movements like cultural advocacy groups and environmental protests, as well as in how artists approach the eco-friendliness of their practices. That’s why she is relaunching it to commemorate its ten-year mark. Part of the featured creators participating now are Cornelia Parker and prominent artists. They have all created visual art, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Sowing Change

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is out in a field in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and somewhat instructive. She describes, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (measuring out the gaps in the orchard), biology (discussing the hereditary traits), and geography (tracing the stories of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).

Several the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties,” she explains. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice. They all have histories attached. The decio apple was introduced by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and hit the physicist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more actively aware of nature and the control we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was urging them, next time they were out, to check the packaging and see their names and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

In London, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will include attendees searching an art institution on a journey to find the seven major glaciers that have been lost in modern times. All formations will be drawn on the exhibition spaces using special pens. Each discovery, a bell will ring and a performance will be held to honor that specific ice mass.

Meanwhile, up in Barrow-in-Furness, a creative will be presenting a public show about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a communal feast, cooked from sustainable ingredients. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is broadcasting her environmental performance, in which community vocalists embark on a mission to sing plants back to health in a green space.

Young Insights

Similar to other artists, another participant will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to fill an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that express their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are compelling because they’re not as restricted as mature perspectives,” she says in her public appeal. “Young people’s input to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will stimulate a sense of responsibility from everyone. Children are innocent. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about worry – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they get a future.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Paul Harfleet’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then performing as birds – and for the event he is planning to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a guided walk of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. That ongoing series started after he faced several events of homophobic abuse on a particular day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and record it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Apparently pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

The artist selected 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 was linked to a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The intention on 4 November is to place blooms at new locations and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the incidents and his recollections. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and