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Back in 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his last important works. Recognized for creating auto-destructive art, Metzger had spent a lifetime to confronting societal issues from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. Through a short video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to remember nature.

“This is my appeal for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on the fourth of November, 2015,” he announced, urging artists and creatives to oppose the ongoing loss of living beings. “Our responsibility is to remind people of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so art will enter territories that are inherently creative.”

The Birth of Remember Nature

Thus the Nature Remembrance initiative came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the ongoing environmental crisis. One of the curators, who cared for Metzger in his later life, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. We shouldn’t hold back for funding or for anyone to approve this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

A decade on, the initiative hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but organizers feel its legacy can still be seen in movements like artist-led declarations and climate activism networks, as well as in how makers handle the sustainability of their practices. For this purpose she is relaunching it to celebrate its decade milestone. Part of the key participants participating now are Cornelia Parker and prominent artists. Each has produced imagery, made video appeals, and created artworks set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Sowing Change

When speaking to Anya Gallaccio, she is out in a field in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. According to her, the preparation and sowing sessions have already included learning about maths (calculating the distances between trees), genetics (exploring the apple’s DNA), and origins (tracing the stories of how different apples were introduced to England).

Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. Each has background narratives. The ancient variety was imported by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that descended from a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

The artist aimed 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 get at a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, when they go shopping, to look on the bag and see the variety and their origin. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

Within the city, a participant’s Book of Loss will engage visitors exploring a major gallery on a journey to find the frozen formations that have been vanished in the past decade. Each glacier will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using ultraviolet markers. When located, a chime will sound and a reading will be conducted to honor that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in Barrow-in-Furness, an artist will be presenting a public show about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a shared meal, prepared with regional food. Over in Newcastle, Uta Kögelsberger is streaming her environmental performance, in which community vocalists undertake a task to sing plants back to health in a local park.

Young Insights

Similar to other artists, another participant will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to cover a cultural venue in children’s artwork that express their dreams and worries for the tomorrow. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as grown-ups’,” she says in her public appeal. “The contributions of youth to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can inspire a sense of responsibility from each person. Kids are unbiased. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about anxiety – it should be about optimism and making sure that they get a future.”

Memorials and Memory

Another artist’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves drawing birds and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is intending to address an iconic figure. He is also organizing a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his ongoing series over the past twenty years. The project began when he endured several events of discrimination on a particular day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the site of each occurrence and record it – the project has since spiralled to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “It seems wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

Harfleet chose the bloom not just for the direct association – it has long been a slur – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The intention on the event day is to plant pansies at additional sites and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the guided walk about the occurrences and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

Harfleet hopes his work – and