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In 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his final important works. Known for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had spent a lifetime to confronting human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. Via a concise video message, he requested support for a global day of action to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he declared, inviting artists and creatives to stand against the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore domains that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

In this way the Nature Remembrance initiative came into being, a day when artists across the country created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, notes his drive for action. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “My advice was – we must act now. No need to pause for financial support or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

A decade on, the project may not have incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be seen in initiatives like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how makers handle the sustainability of their methods. This is the reason she is reviving it to celebrate its decade milestone. Among the featured creators participating now are A Man Called Adam and Anya Gallaccio. All participants have produced imagery, made video appeals, and produced installations set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Planting Hope

In conversation with one participant, she is out in a field in a rural area, assisting with planting apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. As she explains, the preparation and sowing sessions have already involved learning about mathematics (spacing the gaps in the orchard), science (exploring the apple’s DNA), and geography (tracing the journeys of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that produces crimson liquid

“A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that produces red juice. They all have stories behind them. The ancient variety was introduced by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the environment and the power we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, next time they were out, to read the label and see their names and the source. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

In London, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will engage visitors looking through Tate Modern on a mission to find the ice masses that have been disappeared in recent years. Each glacier will be illustrated on the museum surfaces using special pens. When located, a chime will sound and a recitation will be performed to commemorate that individual formation.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, Maddi Nicholson will be hosting a public show about our separation from nature, as well as organizing a communal feast, made using sustainable ingredients. Further north, an artist is sharing her musical project, in which local singers begin a project to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Following this approach, Cornelia Parker will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to decorate an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that document their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are impactful because they’re not as trammelled as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “The contributions of youth to the world is something truly special and it may provoke a awareness of obligation from us all. Youth is pure. They have fears about the future. But let’s not make it about worry – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they have a tomorrow.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’s work also appeals to children. Drawing on past experience, his feathered initiative involves drawing birds and then performing as birds – and for Remember Nature day he is planning to address an iconic figure. He is also conducting a itinerant journey of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. This endeavor commenced following he endured several events of homophobic abuse on a single day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since grown to cover events shared by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Apparently pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its etymology comes 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 the event day is to sow flowers at new locations and also replant flowers in places he has previously memorialised, all the while discussing with those on the walking tour about the incidents and his recollections. “I’ve recorded quite a few following earlier installations,” he says mournfully.

Moving Forward with Hope

He desires his work – and