🔗 Share this article

In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his final significant endeavors. Known for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting societal issues from peace activism to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to remember nature.

“I call upon you for your involvement in this global appeal for a day of action to remember nature on 4 November 2015,” he declared, inviting makers and thinkers to oppose the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “Our responsibility is to remind people of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

And so Remember Nature came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who supported Metzger in his later life, notes his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. Let’s not wait for funding or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

Ten Years On

Ten years later, the project may not have triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but supporters think its influence can still be seen in movements like artist-led declarations and environmental protests, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their methods. This is the reason she is restaging it to mark its decade milestone. Among the key participants participating now are Cornelia Parker and prominent artists. Each has produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and created artworks set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Sowing Change

Interviewing one participant, she is working outdoors in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. As she explains, the preparation and sowing sessions have already included learning about measurements (measuring out the distances between trees), genetics (studying the apple’s DNA), and geography (tracing the stories of how different apples came to the UK).

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

“Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. They all have histories attached. The ancient variety was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that dropped off a tree and landed on the scientist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more consciously engaged of the natural world and the power we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to check the packaging and see the variety and the source. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Cultural Projects Throughout Britain

Within the city, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will engage visitors exploring a major gallery on a journey to find the ice masses that have been disappeared in modern times. Each glacier will be illustrated on the gallery’s windows and walls using special pens. When located, a bell will ring and a recitation will be held to honor that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in a northern town, an artist will be presenting a free exhibition about our separation from nature, as well as hosting a shared meal, made using regional food. In another city, an artist is broadcasting her musical project, in which regional performers embark on a mission to use music to heal flora in a green space.

Young Insights

Similar to other artists, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to fill an art space in children’s artwork that capture their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are impactful because they’re not as trammelled as mature perspectives,” she says in her public appeal. “The contributions of youth to the world is something distinctive and it may stimulate a sense of responsibility from each person. Kids are unbiased. They have fears about the future. But this shouldn’t be about fear – it should be about hope and us ensuring that they get a future.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Paul Harfleet’s work also appeals to children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves illustrating avians and then performing as birds – and for Remember Nature day he is planning to address an iconic figure. He is also conducting a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. That ongoing series started after he faced multiple occurrences of discrimination on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the site of each occurrence and photograph it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Apparently pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The project on the event day is to plant pansies at additional sites and also replant flowers in places he has honored before, all the while conversing with those on the guided walk about the events and his personal experiences. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Progressing Optimistically

He desires his work – and