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In 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate important works. Famed for creating auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to responding to human struggles from nuclear disarmament to vegetarianism. In a brief video message, he made a plea for a international event to honor the environment.

“I call upon you for your participation in this international summons for a day of action to reflect on the environment on 4 November 2015,” he announced, encouraging artists and creatives to resist the steady eradication of species. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so art will enter realms that are inherently creative.”

The Birth of Nature Remembrance

Thus the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when creatives nationwide created responses to the unfolding climate catastrophe. One of the curators, who supported Metzger in his last days, notes his feeling of immediacy. “He had a strong sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, Remember Nature may not have triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its influence can still be felt in initiatives like cultural advocacy groups and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their methods. That’s why she is reviving it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Among the 18 lead artists involved this time are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. They have all designed posters, shared messages, and produced installations set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in the countryside, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and part learning experience. As she explains, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about measurements (spacing the distances between trees), science (exploring the apple’s DNA), and origins (mapping the backgrounds of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. Each has stories behind them. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that fell from a tree and landed on the physicist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more actively aware of nature and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, on their next shopping trip, to look on the bag and see their names and their origin. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Throughout Britain

At the capital, one artist’s Book of Loss will engage visitors exploring a major gallery on a mission to find the ice masses that have been lost in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. Each discovery, a chime will sound and a performance will be performed to remember that particular glacier.

Meanwhile, up in another location, a creative will be hosting a open display about our separation from nature, as well as hosting a communal feast, prepared with sustainable ingredients. Further north, a participant is streaming her musical project, in which community vocalists begin a project to perform for vegetation in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to decorate a cultural venue in youth creations that express their hopes and fears for the future. “Youthful expressions are compelling because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her public appeal. “What children have to offer to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will inspire a feeling of duty from each person. Youth is pure. They have anxieties about what’s next. But let’s not make it about anxiety – it should be about optimism and us ensuring that they get a future.”

Memorials and Memory

Another artist’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his feathered initiative involves illustrating avians and then performing as birds – and for the initiative he is planning to represent a local symbol. He is also staging a walking tour of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. That ongoing series commenced following he faced multiple occurrences of discrimination on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the site of each occurrence and record it – the project has since spiralled to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the clear connection – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its name derives 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 intention on Remember Nature day is to place blooms at fresh spots and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while discussing with those on the itinerant journey about the occurrences and his personal experiences. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says with regret.

Progressing Optimistically

He desires his work – and