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Back in 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his last significant endeavors. Famed for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting societal issues from anti-nuclear advocacy to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he requested support for a global day of action to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this international summons for a day of action to reflect on the environment on 4 November 2015,” he declared, urging artists and creatives to stand against the steady eradication of living beings. “The mission is to help the public recall of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so art will enter domains that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Birth of Nature Remembrance

Thus Remember Nature came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. One of the curators, who cared for Metzger in his later life, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. We shouldn’t hold back for sponsorship or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

Ten years later, Remember Nature may not have incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its influence can still be felt in movements like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their methods. For this purpose she is relaunching it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Among the 18 lead artists involved this time are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. They have all created visual art, recorded calls to action, and created artworks set to be unveiled on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing the artist, she is working outdoors in a rural area, assisting with planting apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and part learning experience. She describes, the design and cultivation sessions have already involved learning about mathematics (measuring out the planting intervals), genetics (studying the genetic makeup), and geography (mapping the journeys of how various cultivars were introduced to England).

A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces red juice

“A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties,” she explains. “We have one apple that releases crimson liquid. Every one carries histories attached. The historical cultivar was imported by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that fell from a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the power we have over it. “For a lot 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 the variety and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Nationwide

Within the city, a participant’s work about extinction will include attendees exploring Tate Modern on a mission to find the ice masses that have been disappeared in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the gallery’s windows and walls using special pens. Whenever one is found, a bell will ring and a reading will be conducted to honor that individual formation.

At the same time, up in a northern town, an artist will be putting on a open display about our disconnection from the land, as well as organizing a communal feast, cooked from sustainable ingredients. Further north, an artist is broadcasting her environmental performance, in which local singers embark on a mission to perform for vegetation in a green space.

Youth Perspectives

Following this approach, Cornelia Parker will be working with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to fill Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in children’s artwork that capture their dreams and worries for the years ahead. “Children’s words and images are powerful 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 quite unique and perhaps it can inspire a feeling of duty from everyone. Children are innocent. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about anxiety – it should be about optimism and making sure that they get a future.”

Tributes and Thoughts

A participant’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves drawing birds and then performing as birds – and for the event he is planning to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a guided walk of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. That ongoing series started after he experienced multiple occurrences of discrimination on a single day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and photograph it – the project has since spiralled to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “It seems wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

The artist selected the flower not just for the clear connection – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The plan on the event day is to place blooms at additional sites and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while discussing with those on the itinerant journey about the events and his memories of them. “I’ve recorded quite a few following earlier installations,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

Harfleet hopes his work – and