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In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his final major projects. Recognized for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had spent a lifetime to responding to human struggles from nuclear disarmament to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he requested support for a international event to honor the environment.

“This is my appeal for your participation in this international summons for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he stated, urging makers and thinkers to oppose the ongoing loss of living beings. “Our task is to remind people of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

And so the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who worked closely with Metzger in his later life, notes his drive for action. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I just said – let’s not mess around. We shouldn’t hold back for funding or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

Ten Years On

After ten years, the project hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but supporters think its legacy can still be felt in movements like cultural advocacy groups and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the sustainability of their practices. That’s why she is relaunching it to mark its ten-year mark. Among the featured creators participating now are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. All participants have created visual art, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

Interviewing one participant, she is out in a field in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. She describes, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (spacing the gaps in the orchard), genetics (studying the genetic makeup), and origins (tracing the stories of how various cultivars were introduced to England).

Many of the apples were chosen 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 funny names such as the other unusual varieties,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice. They all have background narratives. The decio apple was brought over by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that fell from a tree and hit Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more actively aware of the natural world and the power we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was prompting them, when they go shopping, to check the packaging and see their names and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

At the capital, one artist’s Book of Loss will involve participants looking through Tate Modern on a journey to find the seven major glaciers that have been vanished in the past decade. Each glacier will be drawn on the museum surfaces using ultraviolet markers. When located, a alert will occur and a recitation will be conducted to commemorate that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in another location, a creative will be putting on a public show about our separation from nature, as well as holding a shared meal, cooked from regional food. Further north, an artist is streaming her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which community vocalists embark on a mission to perform for vegetation in a local park.

Youth Perspectives

Similar to other artists, a featured creator will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to fill a cultural venue in children’s artwork that capture their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Children’s words and images are impactful because they’re not as restricted as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will provoke a feeling of duty from us all. Kids are unbiased. They have concerns for tomorrow. But this shouldn’t be about fear – it should be about optimism and us ensuring that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

Another artist’s work also appeals to children. Drawing on past experience, his feathered initiative involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for the initiative he is aiming to tackle an iconic figure. He is also organizing a guided walk of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his long-term work over the past twenty years. This endeavor started after he faced three incidents of discrimination on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the location of every incident and document it – the project has since expanded to include incidents reported by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

The artist selected the pansy not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The plan on 4 November is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also renew the tributes in places he has previously memorialised, all the while talking to those on the itinerant journey about the events and his recollections. “I’ve recorded quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

The artist wishes his work – and