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In 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger launched one of his ultimate important works. Famed for creating auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting human struggles from peace activism to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he made a plea for a international event to honor the environment.

“This is my appeal for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on 4 November 2015,” he declared, urging artists and creatives to stand against the continuing disappearance of living beings. “Our task is to help the public recall of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Birth of Environmental Reflection

In this way Remember Nature came into being, a day when creatives nationwide developed works to the unfolding climate catastrophe. One of the curators, who worked closely with Metzger in his later life, recalls his drive for action. “There was a strong sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “My advice was – we must act now. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to green light this. Let’s just do it.”

Ten Years On

A decade on, the initiative hasn’t quite triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but organizers feel its influence can still be felt in movements like Culture Declares and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their methods. For this purpose she is restaging it to mark its ten-year mark. Included in the featured creators participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. They have all created visual art, made video appeals, and created artworks set to be revealed on 4 November 2025.

Sowing Change

When speaking to one participant, she is out in a field in the countryside, assisting with planting apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and half educational workshop. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already involved learning about maths (measuring out the planting intervals), biology (exploring the hereditary traits), and origins (tracing the stories of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. Each has histories attached. The historical cultivar was imported by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that fell from a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped 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 find in a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to check the packaging and see what they’re called and their origin. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Across the Country

Within the city, Youngsook Choi’s Book of Loss will include attendees searching an art institution on a quest to find the frozen formations that have been lost in recent years. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the exhibition spaces using special pens. Each discovery, a bell will ring and a recitation will be conducted to honor that specific ice mass.

At the same time, up in a northern town, an artist will be putting on a free exhibition about our separation from nature, as well as hosting a community dinner, cooked from regional food. Over in Newcastle, Uta Kögelsberger is streaming her musical project, in which regional performers embark on a mission to perform for vegetation in a local park.

Youth Perspectives

Similar to other artists, another participant will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to cover an art space in children’s artwork that document their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are impactful because they’re not as restricted as mature perspectives,” she says in her public appeal. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can provoke a sense of responsibility from each person. Youth is pure. They have anxieties about what’s next. But let’s not make it about worry – it should be about optimism and us ensuring that they see a better world.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Another artist’s work also appeals to children. Drawing on past experience, his Birds Can Fly involves sketching winged creatures and then performing as birds – and for Remember Nature day he is planning to represent Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also staging a walking tour of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. This endeavor commenced following he endured multiple occurrences of discrimination on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since spiralled to cover events reported by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

The artist selected the flower not just for the direct association – 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 reflective, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The intention on 4 November is to place blooms at additional sites and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while conversing with those on the itinerant journey about the occurrences and his personal experiences. “There’s been quite a few following earlier installations,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

Harfleet hopes his work – and