🔗 Share this article

During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate significant endeavors. Recognized for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had spent a lifetime to addressing human struggles from peace activism to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a worldwide initiative to honor the environment.

“I call upon you for your involvement in this global appeal for a day of action to remember nature on the fourth of November, 2015,” he stated, encouraging makers and thinkers to resist the ongoing loss 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 fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

In this way the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when creatives nationwide developed works to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who supported Metzger in his last days, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “There was a strong sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. We shouldn’t hold back for sponsorship or for anyone to authorize this. Let’s just do it.”

After Ten Years

After ten years, the initiative may not have incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be felt in movements like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how creatives consider the sustainability of their work. For this purpose she is relaunching it to mark its ten-year mark. Included in the 18 lead artists taking part currently are Yu-Chen Wang and other notable figures. Each has created visual art, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Sowing Change

When speaking to Anya Gallaccio, she is on site in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will create a circular grove. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and half educational workshop. According to her, the preparation and sowing sessions have already involved learning about mathematics (spacing the gaps in the orchard), biology (exploring the genetic makeup), and origins (mapping the journeys of how various cultivars were introduced to England).

Several the apples were selected 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 amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarlet-colored sap. Each has background narratives. The ancient variety was brought over by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that descended from a tree and hit the physicist’s head.”

She hoped 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 get at a supermarket, so I was urging them, when they go shopping, to check the packaging and see the variety and the source. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Nationwide

Within the city, Youngsook Choi’s Book of Loss will include attendees searching Tate Modern on a journey to find the ice masses that have been disappeared in recent years. Each glacier will be drawn on the exhibition spaces using ultraviolet markers. When located, a bell will ring and a reading will be conducted to remember that specific ice mass.

Meanwhile, up in another location, a creative will be presenting a public show about our separation from nature, as well as holding a communal feast, prepared with sustainable ingredients. In another city, a participant is broadcasting her environmental performance, in which local singers begin a project to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Similar to other artists, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is planning to cover Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in youth creations that capture their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are compelling because they’re not as restricted as grown-ups’,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can stimulate a awareness of obligation from each person. Children are innocent. They have fears about the future. But let’s not make it about anxiety – it should be about positivity and us ensuring that they get a future.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Paul Harfleet’s work also resonates for children. As a former drag queen, his feathered initiative involves illustrating avians and then embodying them – and for the initiative he is planning to address Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his ongoing series over the past twenty years. That ongoing series began when he faced three incidents of homophobic abuse on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since expanded to include incidents reported 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 short-lived memorial.”

He picked the bloom not just for the direct association – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The project on 4 November is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while discussing with those on the guided walk about the events and his recollections. “I’ve recorded quite a few following earlier installations,” he says sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and