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In 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger launched one of his final important works. Famed for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to responding to global challenges from peace activism to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“I call upon you for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, encouraging artists and creatives to oppose the ongoing loss of living beings. “Our responsibility is to remind people of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

And so Remember Nature was established, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. Jo Joelson, who supported Metzger in his final years, notes his sense of urgency. “There was a profound sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. We shouldn’t hold back for funding or for anyone to authorize this. Let’s just do it.”

Ten Years On

Ten years later, Remember Nature may not have triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but supporters think its impact can still be seen in movements like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their practices. For this purpose she is reviving it to mark its 10-year anniversary. Among the key participants participating now are A Man Called Adam and other notable figures. Each has created visual art, shared messages, and created artworks set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Sowing Change

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will develop into a coiled garden. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. She describes, the design and cultivation sessions have already included learning about maths (measuring out the planting intervals), genetics (studying the hereditary traits), and history (mapping the journeys of how different apples arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces red juice

“Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries stories behind them. The decio apple was brought over by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that descended from a tree and hit Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more actively aware of the environment and the control we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was urging them, when they go shopping, to look on the bag and see what they’re called and their origin. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

At the capital, a participant’s Book of Loss will involve participants looking through a major gallery on a mission to find the ice masses that have been lost in recent years. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. When located, a bell will ring and a recitation will be conducted to remember that specific ice mass.

At the same time, up in a northern town, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a public show about our disconnection from the land, as well as hosting a communal feast, cooked from regional food. In another city, an artist is sharing her environmental performance, in which regional performers undertake a task to sing plants back to health in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to fill Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in youth creations that capture their aspirations and concerns for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are compelling because they’re not as trammelled as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “What children have to offer to the world is something truly special and perhaps it can provoke a awareness of obligation from everyone. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But let’s not make it about worry – it should be about positivity and our responsibility that they have a tomorrow.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Another artist’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his Birds Can Fly involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for Remember Nature day he is aiming to represent a local symbol. He is also staging a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. The project commenced following he experienced multiple occurrences of discrimination on a single day. In response, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and photograph it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “It seems birds consume them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the clear connection – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The plan on Remember Nature day is to sow flowers at additional sites and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the walking tour about the incidents and his personal experiences. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says mournfully.

Advancing Positively

Harfleet hopes his work – and