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During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate major projects. Recognized for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to addressing global challenges from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he requested support for a international event to honor the environment.

“This is my appeal for your engagement in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, urging cultural workers to stand against the continuing disappearance of species. “Our responsibility is to help the public recall of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so art will enter realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Birth of Remember Nature

In this way the Nature Remembrance initiative was born, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the escalating planetary emergency. Jo Joelson, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, notes his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I just said – we must act now. We shouldn’t hold back for financial support or for anyone to authorize this. We should proceed.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, the project hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be felt in initiatives like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their practices. That’s why she is relaunching it to celebrate its decade milestone. Part of the featured creators taking part currently are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. All participants have designed posters, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be unveiled on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with the artist, she is on site in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Working with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and half educational workshop. As she explains, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about measurements (calculating the distances between trees), genetics (discussing the genetic makeup), and origins (tracing the backgrounds of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid

“Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” she explains. “We have one apple that releases crimson liquid. Each has stories behind them. The decio apple was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that dropped off a tree and struck the physicist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more actively aware of nature and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see the variety and where they were grown. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Across the Country

Within the city, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will engage visitors looking through an art institution on a journey to find the ice masses that have been lost in modern times. Each glacier will be illustrated on the gallery’s windows and walls using invisible ink. When located, a alert will occur and a performance will be conducted to remember that particular glacier.

Meanwhile, up in a northern town, an artist will be hosting a free exhibition about our separation from nature, as well as organizing a communal feast, prepared with sustainable ingredients. Further north, Uta Kögelsberger is broadcasting her environmental performance, in which regional performers undertake a task to use music to heal flora in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Young Insights

Similar to other artists, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is hoping to cover a cultural venue in youth creations that express their dreams and worries for the tomorrow. “Youthful expressions are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her public appeal. “Young people’s input to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will stimulate a feeling of duty from each person. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But this shouldn’t be about worry – it should be about hope and us ensuring that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

Paul Harfleet’s work also resonates for children. Drawing on past experience, his avian project involves drawing birds and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is intending to address Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also organizing a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. The project began when he endured three incidents of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and record it – the project has since expanded to cover events experienced by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

He picked the flower not just for the direct association – it has long been a slur – 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 bad quality,” he says.

The project on the event day is to place blooms at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while conversing with those on the walking tour about the occurrences and his recollections. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and