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In 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate major projects. Known for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to addressing global challenges from peace activism to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he requested support for a global day of action to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this international summons for a day of action to remember nature on the fourth of November, 2015,” he declared, encouraging makers and thinkers to resist the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “The mission is to help the public recall of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are inherently creative.”

The Birth of Remember Nature

Thus the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when creatives nationwide produced pieces to the ongoing environmental crisis. An organizer, who worked closely with Metzger in his last days, remembers his drive for action. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – we must act now. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

After ten years, the initiative hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its impact can still be observed in initiatives like cultural advocacy groups and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their practices. That’s why she is relaunching it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Among the featured creators taking part currently are Cornelia Parker and Anya Gallaccio. All participants have produced imagery, shared messages, and created artworks set to be presented on November 4, 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with the artist, she is working outdoors in the countryside, assisting with planting apple trees that will create a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. As she explains, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about measurements (measuring out the distances between trees), biology (studying the apple’s DNA), and history (researching the backgrounds of how different apples were introduced to England).

Several the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarcolored sap

“A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that releases red juice. They all have stories behind them. The ancient variety was introduced by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that descended from a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more actively aware of nature and the control we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was urging them, on their next shopping trip, to check the packaging and see the variety and where they were grown. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

At the capital, Youngsook Choi’s project on disappearance will involve participants exploring a major gallery on a journey to find the ice masses that have been vanished in the past decade. Each glacier will be illustrated on the museum surfaces using special pens. When located, a chime will sound and a recitation will be held to commemorate that specific ice mass.

Meanwhile, up in another location, 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. Over in Newcastle, a participant is streaming her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers begin a project to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is hoping to fill a cultural venue in youth creations that capture their dreams and worries for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are compelling because they’re not as restricted as adults’,” she says in her public appeal. “Young people’s input to the world is something quite unique and hopefully it will inspire a feeling of duty from us all. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about anxiety – it should be about positivity and making sure that they see a better world.”

Memorials and Memory

Another artist’s work also appeals to children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves sketching winged creatures and then performing as birds – and for Remember Nature day he is planning to tackle 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 last two decades. That ongoing series began when he experienced multiple occurrences of prejudice on a one occasion. To counter this, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and record it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

Harfleet chose the bloom not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its etymology comes from 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 Remember Nature day is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also replant flowers in places he has previously memorialised, all the while discussing with those on the guided walk about the occurrences and his recollections. “I’ve recorded quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Advancing Positively

Harfleet hopes his work – and