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In 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his last major projects. Recognized for creating art that erases itself, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting human struggles from nuclear disarmament to vegetarianism. Via a concise video message, he requested support for a worldwide initiative to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this worldwide call for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he stated, encouraging cultural workers to resist the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “Our task is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore domains that are inherently creative.”

The Birth of Environmental Reflection

In this way Remember Nature was established, a day when creatives nationwide created responses to the unfolding climate catastrophe. One of the curators, who cared for Metzger in his final years, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – don’t delay. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

Ten Years On

After ten years, the initiative may not have triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be observed in campaigns like artist-led declarations and climate activism networks, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their methods. This is the reason she is restaging it to mark its ten-year mark. Among the featured creators taking part currently are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. They have all designed posters, made video appeals, and developed pieces set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

When speaking to the artist, she is out in a field in a rural area, assisting with planting apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and half educational workshop. As she explains, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (calculating the planting intervals), science (discussing the hereditary traits), and geography (researching the stories of how different apples were introduced to England).

Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that produces crimson liquid

“Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. They all have background narratives. The ancient variety was introduced by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that dropped off a tree and hit Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more actively aware 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 encouraging them, when they go shopping, to check the packaging and see their names and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Artistic Responses Throughout Britain

Within the city, one artist’s work about extinction will include attendees looking through an art institution on a quest to find the ice masses that have been vanished in the past decade. Each glacier will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. Whenever one is found, a bell will ring and a recitation will be performed to remember that specific ice mass.

At the same time, up in another location, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a free exhibition about our disconnection from the land, as well as holding a communal feast, cooked from regional food. Over in Newcastle, a participant is streaming her environmental performance, in which local singers begin a project to use music to heal flora in a local park.

Youth Perspectives

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be working with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is hoping to decorate a cultural venue in kids’ letters and drawings that express their dreams and worries for the tomorrow. “Youthful expressions are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as grown-ups’,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something quite unique and hopefully it will stimulate a feeling of duty from us all. Children are innocent. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about worry – 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. As a former drag queen, his feathered initiative involves sketching winged creatures and then performing as birds – and for the event he is aiming to represent a local symbol. He is also conducting a itinerant journey of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his ongoing series over the recent decades. The project started after he experienced several events of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the spot where it happened and photograph it – the project has since spiralled to include incidents experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Apparently wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

The artist selected the flower not just for the direct association – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The intention on 4 November is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the walking tour about the occurrences and his personal experiences. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

He desires his work – and