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In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his last major projects. Recognized for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had spent a lifetime to confronting societal issues from nuclear disarmament to vegetarianism. Via a concise 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 reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, encouraging makers and thinkers to stand against the continuing disappearance of species. “Our task is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Birth of Remember Nature

And so Remember Nature was born, a day when creatives nationwide developed works to the escalating planetary emergency. Jo Joelson, who worked closely with Metzger in his later life, recalls his sense of urgency. “He had a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – don’t delay. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to approve this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

Ten years later, the initiative did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but supporters think its impact can still be seen in campaigns like Culture Declares and environmental protests, as well as in how creatives consider the eco-friendliness of their practices. This is the reason she is reviving it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Part of the key participants involved this time are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. They have all produced imagery, shared messages, and produced installations set to be revealed on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing the artist, she is out in a field in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a coiled garden. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and half educational workshop. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (spacing the distances between trees), biology (discussing the hereditary traits), and history (tracing the journeys of how various cultivars came to the UK).

A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“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’ red juice. Each has stories behind them. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that dropped off a tree and landed on the scientist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more actively aware of the natural world and the control 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 what they’re called and the source. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Across the Country

In London, a participant’s work about extinction will engage visitors looking through a major gallery on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been vanished in the past decade. All formations will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using invisible ink. When located, a alert will occur and a reading will be conducted to commemorate that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in a northern town, an artist will be presenting a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a shared meal, cooked from regional food. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is streaming her musical project, in which local singers undertake a task to use music to heal flora in a local park.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be engaging schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is aiming to cover an art space in youth creations that express their aspirations and concerns for the years ahead. “Children’s words and images are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as grown-ups’,” she says in her public appeal. “The contributions of youth to the world is something quite unique and hopefully it will stimulate a feeling of duty from everyone. Youth is pure. They have fears about the future. But let’s not make it about anxiety – it should be about positivity and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

A participant’s work also connects with children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves illustrating avians and then performing as birds – and for the event he is aiming to address an iconic figure. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. That ongoing series commenced following he endured several events of homophobic abuse on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the location of every incident and document it – the project has since spiralled to incorporate experiences reported 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 short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the pansy not just for the direct association – it has long been a slur – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The plan on 4 November is to plant pansies at additional sites and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, 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 sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

Harfleet hopes his work – and