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Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his final important works. Famed for pioneering auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to human struggles from peace activism to plant-based living. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a international event to celebrate the natural world.

“I call upon you for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on the fourth of November, 2015,” he announced, inviting cultural workers to stand against the continuing disappearance of living beings. “Our task is to make audiences aware of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are inherently creative.”

The Birth of Nature Remembrance

In this way Remember Nature was established, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the unfolding climate catastrophe. One of the curators, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, notes his drive for action. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – don’t delay. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

A Decade Later

A decade on, the project hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be seen in movements like Culture Declares and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their methods. This is the reason she is reviving it to mark its 10-year anniversary. Among the featured creators participating now are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. All participants have produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be revealed on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing one participant, she is working outdoors in the countryside, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a coiled garden. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. According to her, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about maths (measuring out the distances between trees), science (exploring the hereditary traits), and origins (tracing the backgrounds of how various cultivars came to the UK).

Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher,” she explains. “We have one apple that releases crimson liquid. Each has histories attached. The decio apple was imported by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that descended from a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

She hoped 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 prompting them, when they go shopping, to look on the bag and see their names and the source. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Cultural Projects Across the Country

In London, one artist’s project on disappearance will involve participants looking through a major gallery on a quest to find the ice masses that have been vanished in recent years. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the exhibition spaces using special pens. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a reading will be conducted to honor that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in a northern town, an artist will be putting on a public show about our separation from nature, as well as holding a shared meal, prepared with sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, an artist is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers begin a project to use music to heal flora in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, another participant will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to decorate Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that express their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Youthful expressions are compelling because they’re not as restricted as mature perspectives,” she says in her public appeal. “The contributions of youth to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will inspire a feeling of duty from everyone. Kids are unbiased. They have fears about the future. But this shouldn’t be about anxiety – it should be about positivity and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Memorials and Memory

A participant’s work also appeals to children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves illustrating avians and then dressing up as them – and for Remember Nature day he is planning to address an iconic figure. He is also conducting a guided walk of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his long-term work over the last two decades. The project commenced following he endured three incidents of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since expanded to include incidents shared by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “It seems pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose 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 became associated with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The plan on the event day is to place blooms at additional sites and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the events and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and