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In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his last important works. Famed for creating auto-destructive art, Metzger had spent a lifetime to addressing human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this global appeal for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he declared, encouraging makers and thinkers to oppose the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “Our task is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Creation of Nature Remembrance

And so Remember Nature was established, a day when creatives nationwide produced pieces to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who supported Metzger in his later life, remembers his sense of urgency. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to approve this. Take action immediately.”

Ten Years On

After ten years, the project hasn’t quite triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its impact can still be seen in initiatives like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their practices. That’s why she is restaging it to commemorate its ten-year mark. Among the featured creators involved this time are Cornelia Parker and prominent artists. All participants have produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and created artworks set to be revealed on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

When speaking to Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about measurements (calculating the gaps in the orchard), genetics (discussing the hereditary traits), and origins (researching the journeys of how different apples came to the UK).

A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that produces red juice. Each has background narratives. The historical cultivar was introduced by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that descended from a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more actively aware of nature and the influence we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to check the packaging and see the variety and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Nationwide

Within the city, a participant’s Book of Loss will involve participants exploring Tate Modern on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in modern times. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using invisible ink. Each discovery, a chime will sound and a reading will be conducted to honor that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a public show about our separation from nature, as well as organizing a communal feast, cooked from regional food. Over in Newcastle, an artist is streaming her musical project, in which regional performers begin a project to use music to heal flora in a green space.

Youth Perspectives

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to fill a cultural venue in kids’ letters and drawings that document their aspirations and concerns for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are compelling because they’re not as trammelled as grown-ups’,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something truly special and it may stimulate a sense of responsibility from each person. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about positivity and making sure that they get a future.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Paul Harfleet’s work also appeals to children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves illustrating avians and then performing as birds – and for Remember Nature day he is planning to tackle a local symbol. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his ongoing series over the past twenty years. The project started after he faced multiple occurrences of discrimination 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 incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Apparently birds consume them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The plan on Remember Nature day is to plant pansies at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the occurrences and his memories of them. “I’ve recorded quite a few since I last planted,” he says sadly.

Moving Forward with Hope

He desires his work – and