🔗 Share this article

During 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger launched one of his ultimate important works. Recognized for pioneering self-destructive creations, Metzger had devoted his career to addressing societal issues from nuclear disarmament to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he issued a call for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“This is my appeal for your involvement in this global appeal for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, urging makers and thinkers to oppose the ongoing loss of species. “Our task is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore domains that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Nature Remembrance

And so Remember Nature was established, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his later life, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “There was a profound sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “My advice was – we must act now. Let’s not wait for financial support or for anyone to authorize this. Take action immediately.”

Ten Years On

A decade on, the initiative hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be observed in movements like artist-led declarations and environmental protests, as well as in how artists approach the environmental impact of their work. For this purpose she is reviving it to mark its ten-year mark. Among the key participants participating now are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. All participants have designed posters, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be presented on November 4, 2025.

Sowing Change

In conversation with one participant, she is out in a field in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and somewhat instructive. As she explains, the planning and planting sessions have already involved learning about maths (spacing the gaps in the orchard), biology (discussing the hereditary traits), and origins (mapping the journeys of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces crimson liquid

“A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that produces crimson liquid. Every one carries stories behind them. The historical cultivar was introduced by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and landed on the scientist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more thoughtfully connected of nature and the control we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was prompting them, on their next shopping trip, to check the packaging and see the variety and where they were grown. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Artistic Responses Throughout Britain

In London, Youngsook Choi’s project on disappearance will include attendees exploring a major gallery on a quest to find the ice masses that have been lost in modern times. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the museum surfaces using ultraviolet markers. Whenever one is found, a bell will ring and a performance will be performed to honor that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in another location, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as holding a communal feast, prepared with sustainable ingredients. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which community vocalists undertake a task to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, a featured creator will be engaging schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to decorate Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in youth creations that express their hopes and fears for the future. “Children’s words and images are impactful because they’re not as restricted as mature perspectives,” she says in her public appeal. “Young people’s input to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will provoke a sense of responsibility from everyone. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But this shouldn’t be about anxiety – it should be about optimism and making sure that they see a better world.”

Memorials and Memory

A participant’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his Birds Can Fly involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is intending to tackle an iconic figure. He is also organizing a walking tour of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. This endeavor started after he endured multiple occurrences of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

He picked 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. “It was linked to a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The project on Remember Nature day is to plant pansies at additional sites and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the events and his recollections. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

Harfleet hopes his work – and