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Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger launched one of his final important works. Known for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had spent a lifetime to addressing human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he made a plea for a international event to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on the fourth of November, 2015,” he announced, urging artists and creatives to resist the ongoing loss of living beings. “Our task is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are inherently creative.”

The Inception of Nature Remembrance

In this way Remember Nature was established, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his final years, notes his drive for action. “He had a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – we must act now. We shouldn’t hold back for financial support or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

Ten years later, the project may not have incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be felt in initiatives like Culture Declares and environmental protests, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their practices. That’s why she is relaunching it to mark its ten-year mark. Included in the 18 lead artists involved this time are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. They have all designed posters, shared messages, and produced installations set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Sowing Change

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will create a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. She describes, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (spacing the distances between trees), genetics (discussing the apple’s DNA), and history (tracing the journeys of how different apples came to the UK).

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

“A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that releases crimson liquid. They all have stories behind them. The historical cultivar was introduced by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that descended from a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of nature and the influence we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was urging them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see what they’re called and their origin. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Cultural Projects Across the Country

Within the city, one artist’s Book of Loss will involve participants exploring Tate Modern on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in the past decade. All formations will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using invisible ink. Whenever one is found, a chime will sound and a recitation will be conducted to commemorate that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in a northern town, an artist will be hosting a public show about our separation from nature, as well as holding a community dinner, made using organic, local produce. Further north, an artist is broadcasting her environmental performance, in which local singers undertake a task to sing plants back to health in a local park.

Youth Perspectives

Similar to other artists, Cornelia Parker will be engaging schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to decorate a cultural venue in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their aspirations and concerns for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are powerful because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “What children have to offer to the world is something truly special and it may stimulate a sense of responsibility from each person. Youth is pure. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about worry – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Memorials and Memory

A participant’s work also connects with children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is planning to address an iconic figure. He is also conducting a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. That ongoing series commenced following he endured multiple occurrences of prejudice on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since expanded to include incidents shared 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 short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a slur – 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 bad quality,” he says.

The intention on the event day is to place blooms at additional sites and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the walking tour about the events and his recollections. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

Harfleet hopes his work – and