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During 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger initiated one of his last significant endeavors. Recognized for pioneering art that erases itself, 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 global day of action to celebrate the natural world.

“This is my appeal for your engagement in this international summons for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he announced, encouraging makers and thinkers to resist the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Nature Remembrance

And so Remember Nature was born, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his final years, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “There was a strong sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I just said – let’s not mess around. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

A Decade Later

After ten years, the project did not sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its legacy can still be observed in initiatives like cultural advocacy groups and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their work. That’s why she is relaunching it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Among the key participants involved this time are Cornelia Parker and prominent artists. Each has produced imagery, shared messages, and developed pieces set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

When speaking to Anya Gallaccio, she is on site in the countryside, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and half educational workshop. According to her, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (measuring out the gaps in the orchard), biology (exploring the genetic makeup), and history (mapping the backgrounds of how distinct varieties 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 ‘bleeds’ scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that produces crimson liquid. They all have stories behind them. The historical cultivar was imported by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that fell from a tree and hit the physicist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more actively aware of the environment and the control 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 read the label and see the variety and their origin. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Cultural Projects Nationwide

Within the city, one artist’s project on disappearance will involve participants looking through Tate Modern on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been vanished in modern times. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using invisible ink. When located, a bell will ring and a performance will be held to commemorate that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in a northern town, a creative will be hosting a public show about our disconnection from the land, as well as hosting a communal feast, cooked from regional food. In another city, an artist is broadcasting her environmental performance, in which regional performers begin a project to perform for vegetation in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Following this approach, another participant will be engaging schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to cover an art space in children’s artwork that document their hopes and fears for the future. “Youthful expressions are impactful because they’re not as trammelled as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and it may stimulate a feeling of duty from us all. Youth is pure. They have fears about the future. But this shouldn’t be about anxiety – it should be about optimism and us ensuring that they see a better world.”

Tributes and Thoughts

A participant’s work also resonates for children. Drawing on past experience, his Birds Can Fly involves sketching winged creatures and then performing as birds – and for the initiative he is planning to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also organizing a guided walk of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his Pansy Project over the last two decades. This endeavor started after he endured multiple occurrences of prejudice on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since spiralled to include incidents shared 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 ephemeral memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The project on 4 November is to place blooms at new locations and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the guided walk about the events and his personal experiences. “There’s been quite a few since I last planted,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and