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During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his final significant endeavors. Famed for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting human struggles from peace activism to plant-based living. Via a concise video message, he issued a call for a international event to honor the environment.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this international summons for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he stated, urging cultural workers to oppose the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “Our task is to remind people of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so art will enter realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

And so Remember Nature was born, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who cared for Metzger in his last days, notes his sense of urgency. “There was a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – don’t delay. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

Ten Years On

After ten years, the project did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but organizers feel its legacy can still be observed in initiatives like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the environmental impact of their methods. For this purpose she is restaging it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Among the 18 lead artists involved this time are Yu-Chen Wang and other notable figures. They have all created visual art, made video appeals, and produced installations set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is out in a field in a rural area, assisting with planting apple trees that will create a coiled garden. Working with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and somewhat instructive. According to her, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about measurements (calculating the planting intervals), science (exploring the hereditary traits), and history (researching the journeys of how distinct varieties were introduced to England).

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

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher,” she explains. “We have one apple that releases red juice. They all have stories behind them. The historical cultivar was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and hit the physicist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more consciously engaged of nature and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, 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. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Cultural Projects Throughout Britain

In London, one artist’s Book of Loss will include attendees exploring Tate Modern on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in modern times. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the gallery’s windows and walls using invisible ink. Each discovery, a chime will sound and a reading will be conducted to remember that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in another location, Maddi Nicholson will be presenting a public show about our disconnection from the land, as well as organizing a community dinner, prepared with sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, a participant is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers embark on a mission to use music to heal flora in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Young Insights

Following this approach, a featured creator will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to decorate a cultural venue in youth creations 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 call to action video. “The contributions of youth to the world is something quite unique and perhaps it can inspire a awareness of obligation from everyone. Children are innocent. They have anxieties about what’s next. But it isn’t meant to be about anxiety – it should be about positivity and us ensuring that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Paul Harfleet’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves drawing birds and then performing as birds – and for the initiative he is aiming to address an iconic figure. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. This endeavor started after he faced several events of prejudice on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and record it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “It seems wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

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

The project on 4 November is to place blooms at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while talking to those on the itinerant journey about the incidents and his recollections. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Moving Forward with Hope

He desires his work – and