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In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his ultimate major projects. Famed for pioneering art that erases itself, Metzger had spent a lifetime to confronting global challenges from anti-nuclear advocacy to ethical eating. Through a short video message, he requested support for a global day of action to honor the environment.

“I call upon you for your engagement in this international summons for a day of action to remember nature on the fourth of November, 2015,” he stated, inviting cultural workers to stand against the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into domains that are naturally imaginative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

In this way Remember Nature was established, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the escalating planetary emergency. An organizer, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “There was a profound sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I just said – don’t delay. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to green light this. Take action immediately.”

After Ten Years

After ten years, the project hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but supporters think its legacy can still be seen in movements like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how makers handle the environmental impact of their work. That’s why she is reviving it to mark its ten-year mark. Included in the key participants participating now are Cornelia Parker and Anya Gallaccio. All participants have produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Sowing Change

Interviewing Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in a rural area, assisting with planting apple trees that will create a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. According to her, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about maths (calculating the distances between trees), genetics (discussing the genetic makeup), and origins (tracing the backgrounds of how various cultivars were introduced to England).

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

“A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries background narratives. The ancient variety was brought over by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that fell from a tree and landed on the scientist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of nature and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was urging 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

In London, a participant’s Book of Loss will involve participants searching a major gallery on a mission to find the ice masses that have been lost in recent years. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the gallery’s windows and walls using special pens. Whenever one is found, a bell will ring and a recitation will be conducted to remember that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in a northern town, an artist will be presenting a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a community dinner, cooked from organic, local produce. In another city, a participant is streaming her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which community vocalists embark on a mission to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be engaging schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is aiming to cover a cultural venue in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their aspirations and concerns for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are impactful because they’re not as restricted as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “The contributions of youth to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will stimulate a feeling of duty from us all. Kids are unbiased. They have fears about the future. But this shouldn’t be about fear – it should be about positivity and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

Paul Harfleet’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his Birds Can Fly involves drawing birds and then performing as birds – and for the initiative he is planning to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a itinerant journey of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. That ongoing series commenced following he experienced multiple occurrences of discrimination on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the spot where it happened and record it – the project has since spiralled to incorporate experiences shared by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Apparently pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a slur – but also because its etymology comes 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 intention on Remember Nature day is to plant pansies at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the walking tour about the incidents and his recollections. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Advancing Positively

The artist wishes his work – and