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In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate major projects. Known for pioneering art that erases itself, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting global challenges from peace activism to plant-based living. Through a short video message, he requested support for a global day of action to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this international summons for a day of action to commemorate our planet on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, inviting artists and creatives 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 creativity will explore realms that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Birth of Remember Nature

Thus Remember Nature came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. An organizer, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, notes his drive for action. “There was a strong 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 financial support or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

After ten years, Remember Nature hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be seen in initiatives like Culture Declares and environmental protests, as well as in how artists approach the environmental impact of their methods. That’s why she is relaunching it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Part of the 18 lead artists taking part currently are A Man Called Adam and other notable figures. All participants have designed posters, shared messages, and produced installations set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Sowing Change

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is out in a field in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a coiled garden. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and somewhat instructive. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already included learning about measurements (calculating the gaps in the orchard), biology (studying the genetic makeup), and history (researching the backgrounds of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that releases crimson liquid

“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 releases scarlet-colored sap. Each has stories behind them. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and struck the physicist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the environment and the power we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to read the label and see the variety and their origin. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Cultural Projects Throughout Britain

At the capital, a participant’s project on disappearance will involve participants looking through a major gallery on a mission to find the ice masses that have been vanished in modern times. Each glacier will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using invisible ink. Whenever one is found, a alert will occur and a reading will be conducted to honor that specific ice mass.

At the same time, up in another location, a creative will be putting on a free exhibition about our separation from nature, as well as holding a community dinner, cooked from organic, local produce. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers undertake a task to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to decorate Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in children’s artwork that express their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Kids’ art are impactful because they’re not as restricted as grown-ups’,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can inspire a awareness of obligation from each person. Children are innocent. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about anxiety – it should be about positivity and our responsibility that they have a tomorrow.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Paul Harfleet’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his feathered initiative involves drawing birds and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is aiming to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. The project commenced following he experienced three incidents of prejudice on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and record it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Apparently birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the flower not just for the direct association – it has long been a slur – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The project on 4 November is to place blooms at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the events and his recollections. “We’ve seen quite a few following earlier installations,” he says mournfully.

Moving Forward with Hope

He desires his work – and