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During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger launched one of his last important works. Famed for introducing art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to addressing societal issues from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. Via a concise video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to honor the environment.

“I call upon you for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he announced, urging makers and thinkers to oppose the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “Our task is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore domains that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

And so Remember Nature was established, a day when creatives nationwide created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his final years, recalls his drive for action. “He had a strong sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – we must act now. Let’s not wait for funding or for anyone to authorize this. We should proceed.”

A Decade Later

A decade on, the initiative hasn’t quite triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be seen in movements like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how makers handle the environmental impact of their methods. This is the reason she is reviving it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Part of the featured creators participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. They have all created visual art, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be presented on November 4, 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

When speaking to one participant, she is working outdoors in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. She describes, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (calculating the gaps in the orchard), biology (studying the genetic makeup), and origins (mapping the backgrounds of how various cultivars came to the UK).

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

“Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the Duck’s Bill,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. Each has background narratives. The decio apple was introduced by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that dropped off a tree and landed on the physicist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more consciously engaged of nature and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, 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 the variety and their origin. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

Within the city, one artist’s work about extinction will engage visitors exploring Tate Modern on a journey to find the frozen formations that have been disappeared in modern times. Each glacier will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using special pens. Whenever one is found, a bell will ring and a reading will be held to commemorate that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in a northern town, a creative will be presenting a public show about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a communal feast, made using regional food. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is sharing her musical project, in which community vocalists embark on a mission to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to fill a cultural venue in children’s artwork that document their dreams and worries for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are compelling because they’re not as inhibited as grown-ups’,” she says in her recorded message. “Young people’s input to the world is something quite unique and hopefully it will stimulate a awareness of obligation from us all. Children are innocent. They have fears about the future. But it isn’t meant to be about anxiety – it should be about optimism and us ensuring that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

Paul Harfleet’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is planning to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his ongoing series over the past twenty years. This endeavor commenced following he faced three incidents of homophobic abuse on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the location of every incident and photograph 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.”

Harfleet chose the flower 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. “It became associated with a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The plan on 4 November is to place blooms at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has honored before, all the while conversing with those on the guided walk about the occurrences and his recollections. “We’ve seen quite a few following earlier installations,” he says with regret.

Progressing Optimistically

He desires his work – and