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In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate important works. Recognized for creating art that erases itself, Metzger had spent a lifetime to responding to societal issues from peace activism to vegetarianism. Via a concise video message, he issued a call for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your participation in this international summons for a day of action to commemorate our planet on the fourth of November, 2015,” he announced, encouraging cultural workers to stand against the continuing disappearance of living beings. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

And so the Nature Remembrance initiative came into being, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who supported Metzger in his later life, recalls his drive for action. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – don’t delay. We shouldn’t hold back for financial support or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

After Ten Years

After ten years, the initiative may not have triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but organizers feel its influence can still be seen in movements like Culture Declares and environmental protests, as well as in how artists approach the eco-friendliness of their work. This is the reason she is restaging it to commemorate its ten-year mark. Among the 18 lead artists participating now are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. All participants have produced imagery, shared messages, and developed pieces set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with one participant, she is out in a field in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will create a coiled garden. Working with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and somewhat instructive. As she explains, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (measuring out the gaps in the orchard), genetics (discussing the genetic makeup), and origins (tracing the stories of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).

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

“Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarlet-colored sap. Each has stories behind them. The decio apple was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that dropped off a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more actively aware of nature and the control we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, next time they were out, to check the packaging and see the variety and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

In London, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will involve participants exploring an art institution on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been vanished in the past decade. All formations will be illustrated on the exhibition spaces using special pens. Each discovery, a bell will ring and a recitation will be conducted to honor that particular glacier.

Meanwhile, up in another location, an artist will be putting on a open display about our separation from nature, as well as hosting a community dinner, prepared with regional food. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is sharing her musical project, in which regional performers begin a project to sing plants back to health in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to cover Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in youth creations that express their aspirations and concerns for the years ahead. “Children’s words and images are compelling because they’re not as trammelled as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “The contributions of youth to the world is something truly special and perhaps it can provoke a feeling of duty from everyone. Children are innocent. They have anxieties about what’s next. But it isn’t meant to be about anxiety – it should be about positivity and making sure that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is planning to represent Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also organizing a itinerant journey of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his Pansy Project over the last two decades. That ongoing series started after he endured multiple occurrences of prejudice on a single day. In response, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the spot where it happened and record it – the project has since expanded to cover events reported by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “It seems birds consume them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the clear connection – 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 thoughtful, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The plan on the event day is to place blooms at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has honored before, all the while talking to those on the itinerant journey about the incidents and his memories of them. “I’ve recorded quite a few since I last planted,” he says with regret.

Advancing Positively

Harfleet hopes his work – and