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During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate important works. Recognized for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to global challenges from peace activism to ethical eating. Through a short video message, he requested support for a international event to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on 4 November 2015,” he declared, urging makers and thinkers to resist the ongoing loss of species. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Inception of Environmental Reflection

In this way Remember Nature was established, a day when creatives nationwide produced pieces to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who supported Metzger in his final years, remembers his sense of urgency. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – we must act now. Let’s not wait for financial support or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

Ten Years On

Ten years later, the initiative may not have sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its influence can still be observed in movements like Culture Declares and climate activism networks, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their practices. For this purpose she is restaging it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Part of the 18 lead artists participating now are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. They have all designed posters, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

When speaking to one participant, she is out in a field in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will create a coiled garden. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. As she explains, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about measurements (spacing the distances between trees), science (studying the apple’s DNA), and geography (researching the stories of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Duck’s Bill,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. They all have stories behind them. The ancient variety was introduced by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and struck the scientist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, next time they were out, to read the label and see the variety and the source. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

At the capital, one artist’s Book of Loss will engage visitors exploring Tate Modern on a journey to find the ice masses that have been lost in the past decade. Each glacier will be drawn on the museum surfaces using invisible ink. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a recitation will be held to remember that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in another location, a creative will be hosting a free exhibition about our separation from nature, as well as hosting a communal feast, cooked from regional food. Further north, a participant is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers embark on a mission to sing plants back to health in a local park.

Young Insights

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 future. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as restricted as mature perspectives,” she says in her call to action video. “The contributions of youth to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will stimulate a sense of responsibility from us all. Children are innocent. They have anxieties about what’s next. But let’s not make it about fear – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they have a tomorrow.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his Birds Can Fly involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for Remember Nature day he is aiming to represent an iconic figure. He is also organizing a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. The project started after he endured several events of discrimination on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the site of each occurrence and record it – the project has since spiralled to cover events shared by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The intention on the event day is to place blooms at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while discussing with those on the guided walk about the incidents and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Moving Forward with Hope

The artist wishes his work – and