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During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his last major projects. Known for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to addressing human struggles from nuclear disarmament to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he issued a call for a international event to honor the environment.

“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, urging artists and creatives to stand against the steady eradication of species. “Our responsibility is to help the public recall of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into territories that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

Thus Remember Nature came into being, a day when creatives nationwide created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his later life, notes his sense of urgency. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – let’s not mess around. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

After Ten Years

Ten years later, Remember Nature did not triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its impact can still be felt in movements like artist-led declarations and environmental protests, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their methods. That’s why she is restaging it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Included in the 18 lead artists involved this time are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. They have all created visual art, made video appeals, and developed pieces set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is on site in the countryside, assisting with planting apple trees that will develop into a circular grove. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. According to her, the planning and planting sessions have already involved learning about mathematics (measuring out the planting intervals), biology (studying the genetic makeup), and origins (researching the backgrounds of how different apples arrived in Britain).

Several the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarcolored sap

“A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries stories behind them. The decio apple was imported by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that descended from a tree and hit the physicist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more consciously engaged of the environment and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, on their next shopping trip, to check the packaging and see what they’re called and the source. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Artistic Responses Nationwide

At the capital, one artist’s project on disappearance will engage visitors exploring an art institution on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been lost in recent years. Each glacier will be drawn on the museum surfaces using invisible ink. Whenever one is found, a bell will ring and a recitation will be held to honor that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in Barrow-in-Furness, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as holding a shared meal, prepared with regional food. Further north, a participant is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which local singers embark on a mission to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Young Insights

Similar to other artists, another participant will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is aiming to fill Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in children’s artwork that document their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something truly special and it may stimulate a sense of responsibility from us all. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But let’s not make it about fear – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’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 tackle a local symbol. He is also staging a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. The project started after he endured several events of discrimination on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Apparently wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the flower not just for the direct association – it has long been a slur – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The project on 4 November is to plant pansies at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the incidents and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says sadly.

Moving Forward with Hope

Harfleet hopes his work – and