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In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his ultimate important works. Recognized for introducing art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting human struggles from nuclear disarmament to plant-based living. Via a concise video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to remember nature.

“This is my appeal for your participation in this global appeal for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, encouraging artists and creatives to stand against the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “Our responsibility is to remind people of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

In this way Remember Nature was established, a day when artists across the country developed works to the unfolding climate catastrophe. An organizer, who worked closely with Metzger in his last days, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “He had a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “My advice was – we must act now. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. We should proceed.”

A Decade Later

A decade on, the project hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but Joelson believes its influence can still be seen in initiatives like Culture Declares and environmental protests, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their work. This is the reason she is relaunching it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Included in the key participants taking part currently are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. Each has designed posters, shared messages, and produced installations set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing the artist, she is working outdoors in a rural area, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Working with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and somewhat instructive. As she explains, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about measurements (measuring out the distances between trees), genetics (studying the genetic makeup), and history (researching the stories of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that produces scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. Each has background narratives. The ancient variety was imported by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that dropped off a tree and hit Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the environment and the power we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to check the packaging and see what they’re called and their origin. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

In London, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will involve participants looking through Tate Modern on a journey to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in modern times. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the exhibition spaces using ultraviolet markers. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a recitation will be performed to honor that individual formation.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, an artist will be putting on a public show about our disconnection from the land, as well as organizing a communal feast, cooked from regional food. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is streaming her musical project, in which local singers embark on a mission to perform for vegetation in a green space.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is aiming to decorate a cultural venue in youth creations that document their dreams and worries for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are compelling because they’re not as trammelled as adults’,” she says in her public appeal. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will stimulate a feeling of duty from us all. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about optimism and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Paul Harfleet’s work also connects with children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves drawing birds and then performing as birds – and for the initiative he is intending to address an iconic figure. He is also staging a itinerant journey of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his Pansy Project over the last two decades. The project commenced following he experienced several events of homophobic abuse on a single day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the location of every incident and document it – the project has since grown to cover events reported by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly birds consume them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

Harfleet chose the pansy not just for the clear connection – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The plan on the event day is to plant pansies at new locations and also renew the tributes in places he has previously memorialised, 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 mournfully.

Advancing Positively

He desires his work – and