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Back in 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his last significant endeavors. Famed for creating auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to vegetarianism. In a brief video message, he requested support for a international event to remember nature.

“This is my appeal for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to commemorate our planet on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, encouraging artists and creatives to stand against the ongoing loss of species. “Our task 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 Inception of Environmental Reflection

And so Remember Nature was established, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who cared for Metzger in his last days, recalls his sense of urgency. “He had a great sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I urged him – don’t delay. Let’s not wait for funding or for anyone to green light this. Take action immediately.”

A Decade Later

A decade on, the project did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but supporters think its impact can still be observed in movements like Culture Declares and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the environmental impact of their work. For this purpose she is restaging it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Included in the featured creators taking part currently are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. Each has designed posters, made video appeals, and developed pieces set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Sowing Change

Interviewing one participant, she is out in a field in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a circular grove. Engaging 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 genetic makeup), and geography (researching the journeys of how different apples came to the UK).

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

“Several the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. Every one carries background narratives. The decio apple was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and hit Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more consciously engaged of the environment and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see the variety and their origin. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Artistic Responses Nationwide

In London, 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 lost in modern times. All formations will be drawn on the exhibition spaces using ultraviolet markers. Each discovery, a bell will ring and a performance will be performed to honor that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in another location, a creative will be presenting a public show about our separation from nature, as well as hosting a communal feast, made using organic, local produce. In another city, an artist is sharing her musical project, in which local singers begin a project to use music to heal flora in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be engaging schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is hoping to fill Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in youth creations that capture their hopes and fears for the future. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as grown-ups’,” she says in her recorded message. “The contributions of youth to the world is something truly special and perhaps it can stimulate a sense of responsibility from everyone. Kids are unbiased. They have fears about the future. But let’s not make it about fear – it should be about positivity and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also connects with children. With a background in performance, his Birds Can Fly involves illustrating avians and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is intending to tackle a local symbol. He is also organizing a walking tour of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. That ongoing series started after he experienced multiple occurrences of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since grown to cover events shared by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Apparently pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the pansy not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a slur – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The project on Remember Nature day is to plant pansies at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has honored before, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the events and his recollections. “I’ve recorded quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

He desires his work – and