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Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate major projects. Famed for creating auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting global challenges from nuclear disarmament to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he issued a call for a global day of action to remember nature.

“This is my appeal for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on 4 November 2015,” he announced, encouraging cultural workers to stand against the continuing disappearance of species. “Our task is to remind people of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

In this way Remember Nature was born, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the escalating planetary emergency. An organizer, who supported Metzger in his final years, notes his sense of urgency. “He had a great sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I just said – don’t delay. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to green light this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, the project did not triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but supporters think its legacy can still be seen in movements like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their methods. That’s why she is relaunching it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Part of the 18 lead artists taking part currently are Yu-Chen Wang and other notable figures. Each has produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Sowing Change

When speaking to Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in the countryside, helping plant apple trees that will create a spiral-shaped orchard. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. As she explains, the planning and planting sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (calculating the planting intervals), science (discussing the hereditary traits), and geography (tracing the journeys of how different apples arrived in Britain).

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

“Several the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces red juice. They all have stories behind them. The decio apple was brought over by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that descended from a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the environment and the power we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to check the packaging and see their names and their origin. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Nationwide

In London, a participant’s Book of Loss will involve participants looking through an art institution on a journey to find the frozen formations that have been lost in modern times. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the exhibition spaces using invisible ink. When located, a chime will sound and a performance will be held to honor that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in a northern town, a creative will be putting on a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as holding a community dinner, prepared with regional food. Further north, Uta Kögelsberger is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers undertake a task to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Following this approach, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is hoping to fill an art space in children’s artwork that document their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Youthful expressions are compelling because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will provoke a feeling of duty from each person. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about fear – it should be about hope and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

Paul Harfleet’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his feathered initiative involves drawing birds and then performing as birds – and for the initiative he is planning to represent a local symbol. He is also conducting a walking tour of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his ongoing series over the past twenty years. That ongoing series began when he faced three incidents of prejudice on a particular day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since expanded to include incidents reported by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Apparently wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the direct association – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The project on Remember Nature day 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 events and his recollections. “I’ve recorded quite a few following earlier installations,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

Harfleet hopes his work – and