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Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger launched one of his final important works. Recognized for creating art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to addressing societal issues from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. Through a short video message, he made a plea for a international event to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this international summons for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he stated, encouraging artists and creatives to oppose the continuing disappearance of species. “The mission is to help the public recall of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Environmental Reflection

And so Remember Nature was born, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who cared for Metzger in his later life, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “There was a profound sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – we must act now. Let’s not wait for funding or for anyone to green light this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, the project hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but supporters think its impact can still be felt in initiatives like artist-led declarations and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the sustainability of their methods. That’s why she is relaunching it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Part of the key participants taking part currently are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. Each has designed posters, shared messages, and created artworks set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

When speaking to one participant, she is out in a field in the countryside, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. She describes, the design and cultivation sessions have already involved learning about measurements (calculating the gaps in the orchard), science (exploring the apple’s DNA), and geography (tracing the backgrounds of how various cultivars came to the UK).

A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that produces scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the Duck’s Bill,” she explains. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. Each has background narratives. The decio apple was brought over by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that dropped off a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more consciously engaged of nature and the control we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, next time they were out, to read the label and see the variety and the source. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Artistic Responses Nationwide

Within the city, Youngsook Choi’s Book of Loss will engage visitors exploring a major gallery on a journey to find the frozen formations that have been vanished in recent years. All formations will be drawn on the exhibition spaces using invisible ink. When located, a bell will ring and a performance will be performed to remember that specific ice mass.

Meanwhile, up in Barrow-in-Furness, a creative will be hosting a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as holding a community dinner, made using sustainable ingredients. In another city, an artist is sharing her environmental performance, in which local singers embark on a mission to perform for vegetation in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be working with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is aiming to fill Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in children’s artwork that document their aspirations and concerns for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as restricted as grown-ups’,” she says in her recorded message. “The contributions of youth to the world is something quite unique and it may provoke a sense of responsibility from us all. Children are innocent. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about fear – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Paul Harfleet’s work also resonates for children. As a former drag queen, his Birds Can Fly involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for the event he is aiming to address Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his ongoing series over the past twenty years. That ongoing series commenced following he endured multiple occurrences of prejudice on a single day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since spiralled to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they don’t often last,” 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 slur – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The intention on the event day is to sow flowers at additional sites and also renew the tributes in places he has previously memorialised, all the while conversing with those on the itinerant journey about the incidents and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

He desires his work – and