🔗 Share this article

In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate major projects. Famed for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to addressing global challenges from peace activism to plant-based living. Through a short video message, he requested support for a international event to remember nature.

“This is my appeal for your engagement in this international summons for a day of action to reflect on the environment on the fourth of November, 2015,” he declared, encouraging makers and thinkers to stand against the ongoing loss of species. “The mission is to remind people of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so art will enter realms that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

In this way Remember Nature was established, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the ongoing environmental crisis. One of the curators, who worked closely with Metzger in his later life, recalls his sense of urgency. “He had a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

Ten years later, Remember Nature may not have incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but organizers feel its legacy can still be felt in movements like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their practices. This is the reason she is relaunching it to mark its ten-year mark. Among the 18 lead artists taking part currently are Cornelia Parker and Anya Gallaccio. All participants have produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

When speaking to Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a coiled garden. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and half educational workshop. According to her, the design and cultivation sessions have already included learning about mathematics (measuring out the distances between trees), science (discussing the genetic makeup), and geography (researching the journeys of how various cultivars were introduced to England).

Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that releases red juice. Each has background narratives. The historical cultivar was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and hit Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more consciously engaged of nature and the power we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see the variety and their origin. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

In London, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will involve participants exploring a major gallery on a mission to find the ice masses that have been vanished in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the exhibition spaces using special pens. Each discovery, a chime will sound and a performance will be conducted to honor that specific ice mass.

At the same time, up in a northern town, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a open display about our disconnection from the land, as well as holding a communal feast, made using regional food. Over in Newcastle, a participant is streaming her environmental performance, in which community vocalists embark on a mission to sing plants back to health in a local park.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to fill Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that document their aspirations and concerns for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are impactful because they’re not as restricted as grown-ups’,” she says in her call to action video. “What children have to offer to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will stimulate a awareness of obligation from each person. Kids are unbiased. They have fears about the future. But let’s not make it about anxiety – it should be about hope and us ensuring that they have a tomorrow.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Another artist’s work also resonates for children. As a former drag queen, his feathered initiative involves drawing birds and then embodying them – and for the initiative he is intending to address Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a walking tour of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. This endeavor began when he endured three incidents of prejudice on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “It seems wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

He picked the bloom not just for the direct association – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The plan on Remember Nature day is to place blooms at additional sites and also renew the tributes in places he has honored before, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the events and his personal experiences. “There’s been quite a few following earlier installations,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

The artist wishes his work – and