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Back in 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger initiated one of his final major projects. Recognized for creating auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to global challenges from nuclear disarmament to plant-based living. Via a concise video message, he requested support for a worldwide initiative to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this international summons for a day of action to commemorate our planet on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, urging cultural workers to oppose the continuing disappearance of species. “The mission is to remind people of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into domains that are naturally imaginative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

And so Remember Nature came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. One of the curators, who cared for Metzger in his later life, recalls his sense of urgency. “He had a strong sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – don’t delay. We shouldn’t hold back for financial support or for anyone to green light this. Take action immediately.”

After Ten Years

A decade on, the initiative may not have triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but supporters think its impact can still be observed in campaigns like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the eco-friendliness of their practices. 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. Each has created visual art, made video appeals, and developed pieces set to be unveiled on 4 November 2025.

Planting Hope

When speaking to one participant, she is on site in the countryside, helping plant apple trees that will create 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 (calculating the gaps in the orchard), genetics (discussing the hereditary traits), and origins (researching the stories of how distinct varieties were introduced to England).

Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that releases crimson liquid

“A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher,” she explains. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. They all have stories behind them. The historical cultivar was introduced by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that dropped off a tree and struck the scientist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more actively aware of nature and the influence we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, on their next shopping trip, to look on the bag and see what they’re called and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Artistic Responses Nationwide

In London, one artist’s work about extinction will include attendees looking through a major gallery on a quest to find the ice masses that have been lost in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the museum surfaces using special pens. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a performance will be conducted to remember that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in Barrow-in-Furness, a creative will be hosting a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a communal feast, cooked from regional food. Over in Newcastle, an artist is broadcasting her musical project, in which local singers undertake a task to sing plants back to health in a local park.

Young Insights

Similar to other artists, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is aiming to fill a cultural venue in children’s artwork that document their hopes and fears for the future. “Kids’ art are compelling because they’re not as inhibited as grown-ups’,” she says in her recorded message. “Young people’s input to the world is something quite unique and perhaps it can provoke a feeling of duty from each person. Kids are unbiased. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about anxiety – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

Another artist’s work also connects with children. Drawing on past experience, his Birds Can Fly involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for the event he is planning to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also organizing a walking tour of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his ongoing series over the past twenty years. That ongoing series began when he experienced multiple occurrences of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. To counter this, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the spot where it happened and record it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “It seems 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 derogatory label – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The plan on Remember Nature day is to sow flowers at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while discussing with those on the walking tour about the events and his recollections. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Advancing Positively

He desires his work – and