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In 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his last major projects. Recognized for pioneering art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to global challenges from peace activism to ethical eating. In a brief video message, he issued a call for a international event to honor the environment.

“This is my appeal for your participation in this global appeal for a day of action to reflect on the environment on 4 November 2015,” he stated, urging cultural workers to stand against the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “Our task is to make audiences aware of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so art will enter domains that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Nature Remembrance

Thus Remember Nature came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the ongoing environmental crisis. An organizer, who supported Metzger in his final years, notes his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – don’t delay. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to approve this. Take action immediately.”

A Decade Later

A decade on, the initiative may not have triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its impact can still be observed in movements like artist-led declarations and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the sustainability of their practices. This is the reason she is restaging it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Part of the key participants participating now are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. They have all produced imagery, made video appeals, and developed pieces set to be presented on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

In conversation with one participant, she is working outdoors in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will create a coiled garden. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and part learning experience. According to her, the preparation and sowing sessions have already involved learning about mathematics (calculating the gaps in the orchard), biology (exploring the hereditary traits), and geography (tracing the backgrounds of how different apples came to the UK).

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

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. Each has background narratives. The ancient variety was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and struck the physicist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more actively aware of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was urging them, on their next shopping trip, to look on the bag and see their names and their origin. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Cultural Projects Across the Country

In London, a participant’s Book of Loss will engage visitors searching Tate Modern on a quest to find the ice masses that have been disappeared in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using special pens. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a performance will be conducted to honor that particular glacier.

Meanwhile, up in a northern town, an artist will be putting on a open display about our separation from nature, as well as organizing a shared meal, prepared with regional food. In another city, a participant is streaming her environmental performance, in which local singers embark on a mission to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to cover a cultural venue in children’s artwork that document their dreams and worries for the future. “Children’s words and images are impactful because they’re not as restricted as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “The contributions of youth to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will provoke a awareness of obligation from each person. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But it isn’t meant to be about worry – it should be about positivity and making sure that they see a better world.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Paul Harfleet’s work also resonates for children. As a former drag queen, his Birds Can Fly involves drawing birds and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is intending to represent an iconic figure. He is also staging a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. That ongoing series began when he endured several events of prejudice on a single day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since expanded to include incidents experienced by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the bloom not just for the direct association – it has long been a derogatory label – 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 bad quality,” he says.

The project on 4 November is to place blooms at fresh spots and also renew the tributes in places he has marked earlier, all the while discussing with those on the guided walk about the incidents and his recollections. “I’ve recorded quite a few since I last planted,” he says sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and