🔗 Share this article

Back in 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger initiated one of his final significant endeavors. Famed for creating auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting human struggles from nuclear disarmament to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he requested support for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he stated, urging cultural workers to oppose the continuing disappearance of living beings. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

And so the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when artists across the country developed works to the unfolding climate catastrophe. One of the curators, who cared for Metzger in his later life, recalls his drive for action. “There was a profound 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 financial support or for anyone to authorize this. Let’s just do it.”

Ten Years On

A decade on, the project did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its legacy can still be felt in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their work. For this purpose she is reviving it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Part of the key participants participating now are Cornelia Parker and Anya Gallaccio. All participants have created visual art, shared messages, and developed pieces set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Sowing Change

Interviewing Anya Gallaccio, she is on site in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a coiled garden. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already involved learning about measurements (measuring out the gaps in the orchard), science (exploring the hereditary traits), and geography (researching the stories of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

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

“A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Duck’s Bill,” she explains. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. They all have stories behind them. The ancient variety was imported by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that dropped off a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more actively aware of the environment and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was urging them, on their next shopping trip, to read the label and see their names and the source. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

In London, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will involve participants exploring Tate Modern on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in recent years. All formations will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using special pens. When located, a chime will sound and a reading will be held to remember that individual formation.

Elsewhere, up in a northern town, a creative will be putting on a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a community dinner, cooked from regional food. Further north, an artist is streaming her musical project, in which community vocalists begin a project to use music to heal flora in a green space.

Youth Perspectives

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to fill a cultural venue in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their aspirations and concerns for the future. “Youthful expressions are powerful because they’re not as restricted as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “The contributions of youth to the world is something quite unique and hopefully it will inspire a feeling of duty from everyone. Children are innocent. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about anxiety – it should be about positivity and our responsibility that they get a future.”

Memorials and Memory

A participant’s work also connects with children. Drawing on past experience, his Birds Can Fly involves illustrating avians and then embodying them – and for the initiative he is planning to address Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his ongoing series over the recent decades. This endeavor started after he faced several events of discrimination on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the location of every incident and document it – the project has since spiralled to cover events reported by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly birds consume them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the clear connection – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The plan on 4 November is to plant pansies at additional sites and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the events and his memories of them. “I’ve recorded quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

He desires his work – and