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During 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his final major projects. Recognized for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had spent a lifetime to confronting human struggles from peace activism to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he requested support for a international event to celebrate the natural world.

“This is my appeal for your involvement in this international summons for a day of action to commemorate our planet on the fourth of November, 2015,” he stated, encouraging makers and thinkers to oppose the continuing disappearance of flora and fauna. “Our task is to help the public recall of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Nature Remembrance

Thus Remember Nature came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the unfolding climate catastrophe. An organizer, who supported Metzger in his final years, recalls his sense of urgency. “He had a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “My advice was – we must act now. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to authorize this. Take action immediately.”

A Decade Later

After ten years, the initiative hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its impact can still be seen in initiatives like Culture Declares and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the eco-friendliness of their practices. This is the reason she is relaunching it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Included in the featured creators participating now are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. Each has produced imagery, shared messages, and created artworks set to be presented on November 4, 2025.

Sowing Change

In conversation with one participant, she is working outdoors in the countryside, cultivating apple trees that will create a circular grove. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and part learning experience. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (measuring out the planting intervals), biology (discussing the genetic makeup), and origins (tracing the journeys of how various cultivars came to the UK).

A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that releases red juice

“A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties,” she explains. “We have one apple that releases red juice. Each has background narratives. The decio apple was imported by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that dropped off a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more consciously engaged of the natural world and the control we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was urging them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see the variety and the source. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Cultural Projects Throughout Britain

Within the city, Youngsook Choi’s Book of Loss will engage visitors looking through an art institution on a journey to find the ice masses that have been lost in recent years. Each glacier will be depicted on the gallery’s windows and walls using special pens. When located, a chime will sound and a reading will be performed to commemorate that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in Barrow-in-Furness, a creative will be presenting a open display about our separation from nature, as well as organizing a community dinner, prepared with regional food. In another city, an artist is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which local singers embark on a mission to use music to heal flora in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Similar to other artists, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is planning to fill a cultural venue in children’s artwork that capture their hopes and fears for the future. “Children’s words and images are compelling because they’re not as restricted as adults’,” she says in her public appeal. “The contributions of youth to the world is something distinctive and it may stimulate a awareness of obligation from everyone. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But this shouldn’t be about fear – it should be about positivity and making sure that they get a future.”

Memorials and Memory

A participant’s work also resonates for children. Drawing on past experience, his Birds Can Fly involves drawing birds and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is planning to address Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also organizing a itinerant journey of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his long-term work over the last two decades. This endeavor started after he experienced three incidents of prejudice on a one occasion. In response, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain 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 clear connection – it has long been a slur – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The project on 4 November is to plant pansies at fresh spots and also renew the tributes in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the itinerant journey about the occurrences and his recollections. “I’ve recorded quite a few following earlier installations,” he says sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

Harfleet hopes his work – and