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Back in 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his final major projects. Known for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting global challenges from anti-nuclear advocacy to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a global day of action to celebrate the natural world.

“This is my appeal for your involvement in this global appeal for a day of action to remember nature on 4 November 2015,” he declared, encouraging cultural workers to resist the steady eradication of living beings. “The mission is to help the public recall of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so art will enter domains that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Nature Remembrance

Thus the Nature Remembrance initiative was born, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the unfolding climate catastrophe. An organizer, who supported Metzger in his final years, recalls his sense of urgency. “There was a profound 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 sponsorship or for anyone to green light this. Let’s just do it.”

After Ten Years

A decade on, the project did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but supporters think its legacy can still be seen in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and environmental protests, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their practices. For this purpose she is restaging it to commemorate its ten-year mark. Part of the featured creators taking part currently are Cornelia Parker and Anya Gallaccio. Each has designed posters, recorded calls to action, and created artworks set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with the artist, she is working outdoors in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and half educational workshop. She describes, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about mathematics (spacing the gaps in the orchard), genetics (exploring the apple’s DNA), and history (mapping the stories of how distinct varieties came to the UK).

Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that produces scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice. Each has stories behind them. The decio apple was imported by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that dropped off a tree and struck the scientist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of nature and the power we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was prompting them, on their next shopping trip, to check the packaging and see their names and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

Within the city, one artist’s work about extinction will involve participants exploring a major gallery on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been lost in the past decade. All formations will be depicted on the gallery’s windows and walls using special pens. Whenever one is found, a alert will occur and a reading will be held to honor that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, an artist will be putting on a free exhibition about our separation from nature, as well as organizing a community dinner, prepared with organic, local produce. Over in Newcastle, an artist is streaming her environmental performance, in which community vocalists begin a project to use music to heal flora in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to fill a cultural venue in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Children’s words and images are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her public appeal. “The contributions of youth to the world is something quite unique and hopefully it will inspire a sense of responsibility from each person. Youth is pure. They have anxieties about what’s next. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about positivity and our responsibility that they have a tomorrow.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his Birds Can Fly involves drawing birds and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is aiming to represent a local symbol. He is also staging a walking tour of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. That ongoing series commenced following he experienced several events of discrimination on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “It seems wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

He picked the bloom not just for the clear connection – it has long been a slur – but also because its origin is 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 plan on 4 November is to sow flowers at fresh spots 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 personal experiences. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Moving Forward with Hope

Harfleet hopes his work – and