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In 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger launched one of his final significant endeavors. Recognized for creating auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting global challenges from nuclear disarmament to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he issued a call for a global day of action to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on the fourth of November, 2015,” he declared, encouraging cultural workers to resist the continuing disappearance of species. “Our task is to make audiences aware of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into domains that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

And so Remember Nature came into being, a day when creatives nationwide produced pieces to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his last days, remembers his sense of urgency. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – we must act now. We shouldn’t hold back for sponsorship or for anyone to green light this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

A decade on, Remember Nature hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but organizers feel its legacy can still be observed in movements like Culture Declares and climate activism networks, as well as in how creatives consider the eco-friendliness of their methods. That’s why she is reviving it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Included in the 18 lead artists participating now are A Man Called Adam and other notable figures. Each has produced imagery, made video appeals, and developed pieces set to be presented on the fourth of November next year.

Planting Hope

Interviewing the artist, she is working outdoors in the countryside, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Working with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. She describes, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (spacing the planting intervals), science (discussing the genetic makeup), and origins (tracing the journeys of how different apples came to the UK).

Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that releases crimson liquid

“Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that produces crimson liquid. Each has histories attached. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that fell from a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the environment 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, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see their names and their origin. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Cultural Projects Across the Country

At the capital, Youngsook Choi’s project on disappearance will engage visitors searching an art institution on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in modern times. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the exhibition spaces using ultraviolet markers. Whenever one is found, a chime will sound and a reading will be held to commemorate that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in a northern town, an artist will be presenting a public show about our separation from nature, as well as holding a shared meal, made using organic, local produce. Further north, a participant is broadcasting her environmental performance, 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 scheduled date she is aiming to decorate Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in children’s artwork that express their dreams and worries for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as grown-ups’,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something truly special and it may inspire a feeling of duty from everyone. Children are innocent. They have fears about the future. But this shouldn’t be about worry – it should be about positivity and our responsibility that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Paul Harfleet’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is intending to address a local symbol. He is also conducting a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. This endeavor commenced following he faced multiple occurrences of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the site of each occurrence and record it – the project has since spiralled to cover events experienced by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

Harfleet chose the flower not just for the clear connection – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The project on Remember Nature day is to sow flowers at new locations and also renew the tributes in places he has honored before, all the while conversing with those on the itinerant journey about the events and his personal experiences. “There’s been quite a few following earlier installations,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

He desires his work – and