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In 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate significant endeavors. Famed for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had spent a lifetime to addressing human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to ethical eating. In a brief video message, he issued a call for a international event to remember nature.

“This is my appeal for your engagement in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on the fourth of November, 2015,” he declared, urging cultural workers to oppose the continuing disappearance of species. “Our task is to remind people of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so art will enter realms that are inherently creative.”

The Birth of Nature Remembrance

In this way the Nature Remembrance initiative was born, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who supported Metzger in his final years, recalls his drive for action. “I sensed a profound sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – we must act now. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to green light this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, Remember Nature may not have incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but supporters think its influence can still be felt in movements like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their methods. For this purpose she is relaunching it to mark its 10-year anniversary. Part of the key participants involved this time are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. All participants have designed posters, shared messages, and developed pieces set to be revealed on the fourth of November next year.

Planting Hope

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is out in a field in Kent, assisting with planting apple trees that will develop into a coiled garden. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and part learning experience. As she explains, the planning and planting sessions have already involved learning about mathematics (calculating the planting intervals), science (studying the apple’s DNA), and origins (researching the journeys of how different apples were introduced to England).

Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. They all have stories behind them. The ancient variety was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more thoughtfully connected of nature and the control we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was prompting them, when they go shopping, to read the label and see the variety and the source. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

In London, one artist’s Book of Loss will include attendees searching Tate Modern on a mission to find the ice masses that have been disappeared in recent years. All formations will be drawn on the museum surfaces using special pens. When located, a chime will sound and a performance will be held to honor that particular glacier.

Meanwhile, up in Barrow-in-Furness, an artist will be presenting a open display about our disconnection from the land, as well as hosting a communal feast, cooked from organic, local produce. Further north, a participant is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers undertake a task to perform for vegetation in a local park.

Young Insights

Similar to other artists, a featured creator will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to cover Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in youth creations that document their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are compelling because they’re not as trammelled as grown-ups’,” she says in her public appeal. “What children have to offer to the world is something quite unique and hopefully it will provoke a sense of responsibility from us all. Youth is pure. They have anxieties about what’s next. But let’s not make it about fear – it should be about optimism and making sure that they see a better world.”

Tributes and Thoughts

A participant’s work also connects with children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is intending to tackle a local symbol. He is also staging a walking tour of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his ongoing series over the recent decades. This endeavor began when he experienced several events of homophobic abuse on a single day. In response, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since grown to include incidents reported by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “It seems birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the pansy not just for the clear connection – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The project on Remember Nature day is to sow flowers at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the guided walk about the events and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

Harfleet hopes his work – and