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In 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate major projects. Famed for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to responding to human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. Through a short video message, he made a plea for a global day of action to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your participation in this international summons for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, inviting makers and thinkers to oppose the steady eradication of species. “The mission is to help the public recall of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore domains that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

Thus the Nature Remembrance initiative was born, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the unfolding climate catastrophe. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his final years, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “He had a great sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I just said – don’t delay. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, the project may not have triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its impact can still be felt in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the sustainability of their methods. That’s why she is reviving it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Included in the key participants participating now are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. They have all produced imagery, made video appeals, and produced installations set to be unveiled on 4 November 2025.

Sowing Change

Interviewing Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in the countryside, cultivating apple trees that will create a circular grove. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and part learning experience. According to her, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about measurements (measuring out the planting intervals), science (discussing the apple’s DNA), and geography (tracing the backgrounds of how various cultivars came to the UK).

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

“Several the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice. Each has histories attached. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that dropped off a tree and hit Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the control we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to read the label and see what they’re called and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

Within the city, a participant’s work about extinction will involve participants searching an art institution on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been vanished in the past decade. Each glacier will be illustrated on the exhibition spaces using invisible ink. Each discovery, a bell will ring and a performance will be conducted to honor that specific ice mass.

At the same time, up in another location, a creative will be hosting a public show about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a community dinner, made using regional food. Further north, a participant is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which local singers embark on a mission to use music to heal flora in a green space.

Youth Perspectives

Similar to other artists, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to decorate a cultural venue in kids’ letters and drawings that document their dreams and worries for the years ahead. “Children’s words and images are impactful because they’re not as trammelled as grown-ups’,” she says in her recorded message. “Young people’s input to the world is something quite unique and it may stimulate a sense of responsibility from everyone. Children are innocent. They have fears about the future. But let’s not make it about anxiety – it should be about positivity and making sure that they see a better world.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Another artist’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his Birds Can Fly involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is planning to tackle a local symbol. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his Pansy Project over the last two decades. That ongoing series began when he faced several events of prejudice on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the site of each occurrence and photograph it – the project has since expanded to include incidents shared by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – 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 negative trait,” he says.

The project on Remember Nature day is to place blooms at fresh spots and also renew the tributes in places he has honored before, all the while talking to those on the itinerant journey about the occurrences and his memories of them. “I’ve recorded quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Moving Forward with Hope

The artist wishes his work – and