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During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger launched one of his final significant endeavors. Known for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had spent a lifetime to responding to global challenges from nuclear disarmament to ethical eating. Through a short video message, he requested support for a international event to honor the environment.

“I call upon you for your engagement in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on the fourth of November, 2015,” he declared, urging cultural workers to resist the continuing disappearance of species. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore domains that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

And so the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when creatives nationwide produced pieces to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who worked closely with Metzger in his later life, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “There was a profound 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 authorize this. We should proceed.”

A Decade Later

After ten years, Remember Nature hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but organizers feel its legacy can still be observed in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their work. This is the reason she is reviving it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Among the featured creators taking part currently are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. Each has produced imagery, made video appeals, and created artworks set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

Interviewing Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in Kent, assisting with planting apple trees that will develop into a circular grove. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and somewhat instructive. According to her, the planning and planting sessions have already incorporated learning about measurements (calculating the planting intervals), science (discussing the apple’s DNA), and geography (mapping the stories of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles 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,” she explains. “We have one apple that releases red juice. They all have histories attached. The decio apple was brought over by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that dropped off a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more consciously engaged of nature and the influence we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was urging them, on their next shopping trip, to read the label and see what they’re called and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Artistic Responses Throughout Britain

Within the city, a participant’s Book of Loss will include attendees searching Tate Modern on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been lost in modern times. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the exhibition spaces using special pens. When located, a chime will sound and a recitation will be held to remember that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in another location, Maddi Nicholson will be hosting a open display about our separation from nature, as well as organizing a shared meal, prepared with sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, Uta Kögelsberger is broadcasting her musical project, in which community vocalists begin a project to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Similar to other artists, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to decorate a cultural venue in children’s artwork that express their dreams and worries for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are compelling because they’re not as restricted as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something truly special and it may inspire a awareness of obligation from everyone. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But let’s not make it about worry – it should be about hope and us ensuring that they have a tomorrow.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Another artist’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his Birds Can Fly involves illustrating avians and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is intending to represent Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also staging a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. The project started after he endured several events of discrimination on a single day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences shared by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

Harfleet chose the pansy not just for the clear connection – it has long been a slur – but also because its etymology comes 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 intention on 4 November is to plant pansies at new locations and also renew the tributes in places he has honored before, all the while talking to those on the itinerant journey about the occurrences and his recollections. “I’ve recorded quite a few following earlier installations,” he says sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

Harfleet hopes his work – and