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Back in 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger launched one of his ultimate important works. Famed for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting global challenges from nuclear disarmament to vegetarianism. In a brief video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to commemorate our planet on the fourth of November, 2015,” he declared, inviting cultural workers to resist the ongoing loss of species. “Our task is to make audiences aware of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into realms that are inherently creative.”

The Birth of Nature Remembrance

Thus Remember Nature came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the escalating planetary emergency. An organizer, who supported Metzger in his final years, remembers his sense of urgency. “He had a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – don’t delay. We shouldn’t hold back for financial support or for anyone to approve this. Take action immediately.”

A Decade Later

After ten years, Remember Nature hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but supporters think its legacy can still be observed in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their work. For this purpose she is reviving it to mark its decade milestone. Part of the featured creators involved this time are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. All participants have produced imagery, shared messages, and created artworks set to be unveiled on 4 November 2025.

Sowing Change

Interviewing Anya Gallaccio, she is out in a field in Kent, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a coiled garden. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and part learning experience. As she explains, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about mathematics (measuring out the distances between trees), genetics (studying the genetic makeup), and history (mapping the journeys of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that produces scarcolored sap

“A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. They all have stories behind them. The ancient variety was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and hit the physicist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more actively aware of nature and the control we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to check the packaging and see their names and the source. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Artistic Responses Nationwide

At the capital, a participant’s Book of Loss will engage visitors looking through a major gallery on a quest to find the ice masses that have been vanished in the past decade. All formations will be illustrated on the exhibition spaces using special pens. Whenever one is found, a bell will ring and a reading will be held to remember that individual formation.

At the same time, up in another location, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a free exhibition about our separation from nature, as well as hosting a communal feast, made using regional food. Over in Newcastle, Uta Kögelsberger is broadcasting her environmental performance, in which regional performers begin a project to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, a featured creator will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is hoping to decorate an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that document their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as mature perspectives,” she says in her public appeal. “What children have to offer to the world is something truly special and perhaps it can inspire a awareness of obligation from everyone. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about worry – it should be about optimism and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Paul Harfleet’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his Birds Can Fly involves sketching winged creatures and then performing as birds – and for Remember Nature day he is aiming to represent a local symbol. He is also organizing a itinerant journey of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his long-term work over the last two decades. This endeavor started after he endured several events of prejudice on a single day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and photograph it – the project has since grown to include incidents shared by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly birds consume them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

He picked the flower not just for the direct association – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The intention on 4 November is to place blooms at fresh spots and also renew the tributes in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the itinerant journey about the occurrences and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

Harfleet hopes his work – and