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Back in 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate significant endeavors. Famed for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to responding to human struggles from nuclear disarmament to vegetarianism. Via a concise video message, he issued a call for a worldwide initiative to honor the environment.

“This is my appeal for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on 4 November 2015,” he announced, encouraging cultural workers to oppose the continuing disappearance of species. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so art will enter territories that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

Thus Remember Nature came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his last days, recalls his sense of urgency. “He had a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – we must act now. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to authorize this. Take action immediately.”

Ten Years On

Ten years later, the project hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be felt in initiatives like artist-led declarations and environmental protests, as well as in how creatives consider the sustainability of their work. That’s why she is restaging it to mark its 10-year anniversary. Included in the 18 lead artists participating now are Cornelia Parker and prominent artists. All participants have designed posters, shared messages, and produced installations set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Sowing Change

In conversation with one participant, she is working outdoors in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will create a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. According to her, the preparation and sowing sessions have already included learning about maths (measuring out the distances between trees), biology (exploring the genetic makeup), and origins (tracing the journeys of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).

Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that releases red juice

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces crimson liquid. Every one carries background narratives. The decio apple was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world 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 read the label and see their names and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Cultural Projects Nationwide

In London, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will involve participants looking through Tate Modern on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been vanished in recent years. Each glacier will be illustrated on the exhibition spaces using invisible ink. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a recitation will be performed to honor that individual formation.

At the same time, up in Barrow-in-Furness, a creative will be putting on a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a shared meal, prepared with regional food. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is streaming her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which local singers begin a project to perform for vegetation in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to cover Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their hopes and fears for the future. “Children’s words and images are powerful because they’re not as restricted as grown-ups’,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and it may inspire 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 optimism and making sure that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Paul Harfleet’s work also appeals to children. Drawing on past experience, his feathered initiative involves drawing birds and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is aiming to represent a local symbol. He is also organizing a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the last two decades. This endeavor started after he experienced several events of homophobic abuse on a single day. In response, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems birds consume them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

He picked the flower 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 became associated with a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The project on the event day is to sow flowers at additional sites and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while conversing with those on the walking tour about the occurrences and his personal experiences. “I’ve recorded quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

He desires his work – and