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During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his last significant endeavors. Famed for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting societal issues from peace activism to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he made a plea for a international event to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, encouraging cultural workers to resist the steady eradication of species. “Our responsibility is to remind people of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are inherently creative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

In this way Remember Nature 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 last days, notes his sense of urgency. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – we must act now. We shouldn’t hold back for funding or for anyone to approve this. Take action immediately.”

After Ten Years

After ten years, Remember Nature hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its impact can still be felt in movements like cultural advocacy groups and environmental protests, as well as in how artists approach the eco-friendliness of their methods. For this purpose she is restaging it to commemorate its ten-year mark. Among the 18 lead artists involved this time are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. All participants have designed posters, made video appeals, and created artworks set to be presented on November 4, 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing the artist, she is working outdoors in the countryside, assisting with planting apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and somewhat instructive. She describes, the planning and planting sessions have already involved learning about measurements (measuring out the planting intervals), biology (studying the hereditary traits), and geography (researching the backgrounds of how different apples came to the UK).

Several the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that releases red juice

“A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that produces crimson liquid. Each has histories attached. The historical cultivar was introduced by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that fell from a tree and struck the physicist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, when they go shopping, to check the packaging and see their names and the source. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Across the Country

Within the city, a participant’s Book of Loss will engage visitors searching Tate Modern on a quest to find the ice masses that have been lost in recent years. Each glacier will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using ultraviolet markers. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a recitation will be conducted to remember that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in Barrow-in-Furness, Maddi Nicholson will be hosting a open display about our disconnection from the land, as well as organizing a community dinner, made using regional food. Further north, an artist is streaming her environmental performance, in which regional performers begin a project to sing plants back to health in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, Cornelia Parker will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to cover an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that express their dreams and worries for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are impactful because they’re not as trammelled as grown-ups’,” she says in her public appeal. “What children have to offer to the world is something quite unique and perhaps it can stimulate a awareness of obligation from us all. Kids are unbiased. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about positivity and us ensuring that they have a tomorrow.”

Tributes and Thoughts

A participant’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is planning to represent a local symbol. 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. That ongoing series commenced following he faced several events of homophobic abuse on a particular day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the location of every incident and document it – the project has since spiralled to cover events experienced by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “It seems pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the direct association – it has long been a derogatory label – 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 4 November is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while discussing with those on the walking tour about the incidents and his personal experiences. “There’s been quite a few following earlier installations,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

The artist wishes his work – and