🔗 Share this article

Back in 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his last important works. Famed for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to societal issues from peace activism to ethical eating. Through a short video message, he requested support for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on 4 November 2015,” he declared, inviting artists and creatives to resist the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “Our responsibility is to remind people of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so art will enter realms that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

Thus the Nature Remembrance initiative came into being, a day when creatives nationwide created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. An organizer, who worked closely with Metzger in his last days, notes his sense of urgency. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – don’t delay. No need to pause for financial support or for anyone to authorize this. Let’s just do it.”

After Ten Years

A decade on, the initiative may not have incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its impact can still be observed in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how creatives consider the sustainability of their practices. For this purpose she is relaunching it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Part of the featured creators participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and other notable figures. All participants have produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Sowing Change

When speaking to Anya Gallaccio, she is on site in the countryside, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and part learning experience. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (spacing the gaps in the orchard), biology (exploring the genetic makeup), and geography (researching the backgrounds of how various cultivars were introduced to England).

Several the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the Duck’s Bill,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that produces crimson liquid. Every one carries histories attached. The ancient variety was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of nature and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was prompting them, when they go shopping, to check the packaging and see the variety and the source. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Cultural Projects Across the Country

At the capital, a participant’s work about extinction will involve participants searching a major gallery on a quest to find the ice masses that have been vanished in the past decade. All formations will be depicted on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. Whenever one is found, a chime will sound and a reading will be conducted to remember that individual formation.

At the same time, up in another location, a creative will be hosting a public show about our disconnection from the land, as well as organizing a shared meal, prepared with sustainable ingredients. Further north, an artist is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which community vocalists embark on a mission to use music to heal flora in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be working with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is aiming to cover a cultural venue in children’s artwork that document their dreams and worries for the years ahead. “Children’s words and images are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “The contributions of youth to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will provoke a sense of responsibility from us all. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But let’s not make it about worry – it should be about hope and us ensuring that they have a tomorrow.”

Tributes and Thoughts

A participant’s work also connects with children. Drawing on past experience, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for the initiative he is aiming to address a local symbol. He is also organizing a guided walk of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. The project started after he endured several events of homophobic abuse on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since expanded to cover events experienced by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the direct association – it has long been a slur – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The intention on Remember Nature day is to plant pansies at new locations and also replant flowers in places he has honored before, all the while discussing with those on the walking tour about the incidents and his personal experiences. “There’s been quite a few following earlier installations,” he says with regret.

Progressing Optimistically

Harfleet hopes his work – and