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During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his final important works. Famed for pioneering art that erases itself, Metzger had dedicated his life to addressing human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to ethical eating. Through a short video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to remember nature.

“I call upon you for your participation in this global appeal for a day of action to commemorate our planet on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, inviting makers and thinkers to stand against the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “Our task is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so art will enter territories that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Birth of Remember Nature

Thus the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the unfolding climate catastrophe. One of the curators, who supported Metzger in his final years, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. We shouldn’t hold back for funding or for anyone to authorize this. Take action immediately.”

A Decade Later

A decade on, the project did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be seen in initiatives like artist-led declarations and environmental protests, as well as in how artists approach the eco-friendliness of their work. This is the reason she is relaunching it to commemorate its decade milestone. Included in the 18 lead artists taking part currently are A Man Called Adam and Anya Gallaccio. Each has designed posters, shared messages, and developed pieces set to be unveiled on 4 November 2025.

Planting Hope

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is out in a field in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and half educational workshop. She describes, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (spacing the gaps in the orchard), science (discussing the hereditary traits), and geography (mapping the backgrounds of how different apples arrived in Britain).

Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces red juice

“A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher,” she explains. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. Every one carries stories behind them. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that descended from a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more consciously engaged of nature and the power we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was urging them, on their next shopping trip, to look on the bag and see the variety and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Across the Country

At the capital, a participant’s project on disappearance will involve participants searching Tate Modern on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been vanished in recent years. All formations will be drawn on the museum surfaces using ultraviolet markers. Whenever one is found, a chime will sound and a performance will be held to commemorate that individual formation.

At the same time, up in Barrow-in-Furness, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a shared meal, cooked from regional food. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers begin a project to use music to heal flora in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be engaging schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to fill an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that document their dreams and worries for the future. “Children’s words and images are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as grown-ups’,” she says in her recorded message. “Young people’s input to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will stimulate a awareness of obligation from each person. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But this shouldn’t be about worry – it should be about optimism and our responsibility that they have a tomorrow.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Paul Harfleet’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for the initiative he is aiming to tackle a local symbol. He is also organizing a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. The project commenced following he experienced three incidents of prejudice on a single day. In response, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the site of each occurrence and photograph it – the project has since expanded to cover events experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Apparently wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its origin is 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 intention on 4 November is to plant pansies at fresh spots and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the itinerant journey about the occurrences and his personal experiences. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and