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Back in 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger launched one of his final important works. Known for pioneering art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to addressing global challenges from nuclear disarmament to ethical eating. In a brief video message, he requested support for a global day of action to honor the environment.

“This is my appeal for your involvement in this global appeal for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he announced, urging artists and creatives to resist 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 fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

Thus Remember Nature was established, a day when artists across the country created responses to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his later life, notes his feeling of immediacy. “He had a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to authorize this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

A decade on, Remember Nature did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but organizers feel its impact can still be felt in initiatives like cultural advocacy groups and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the environmental impact of their methods. This is the reason she is relaunching it to mark its decade milestone. Included in the 18 lead artists involved this time are Cornelia Parker and prominent artists. All participants have designed posters, made video appeals, and produced installations set to be unveiled on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with the artist, she is out in a field in Kent, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Working with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and part learning experience. As she explains, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about maths (calculating the gaps in the orchard), biology (studying the apple’s DNA), and origins (tracing the journeys of how different apples arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice

“Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice. They all have background narratives. The ancient variety was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that dropped off a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more consciously engaged of the natural world and the control we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to read the label and see what they’re called and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Nationwide

At the capital, Youngsook Choi’s project on disappearance will engage visitors searching Tate Modern on a journey to find the ice masses that have been disappeared in modern times. Each glacier will be drawn on the museum surfaces using invisible ink. Each discovery, a chime will sound and a reading will be conducted to commemorate that individual formation.

At the same time, up in a northern town, an artist will be putting on a public show about our separation from nature, as well as holding a shared meal, prepared with regional food. In another city, a participant is streaming her musical project, in which local singers begin a project to sing plants back to health in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to fill a cultural venue in children’s artwork that express their dreams and worries for the future. “Youthful expressions are compelling because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her public appeal. “What children have to offer to the world is something distinctive and it may provoke a feeling of duty from everyone. Children are innocent. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about worry – it should be about hope and making sure that they get a future.”

Memorials and Memory

Another artist’s work also appeals to children. Drawing on past experience, his Birds Can Fly involves illustrating avians and then performing as birds – and for the initiative he is intending to represent an iconic figure. He is also staging a walking tour of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his long-term work over the past twenty years. The project began when he experienced several events of discrimination on a one occasion. In response, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the spot where it happened and record it – the project has since spiralled to cover events experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems birds consume them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

He picked 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. “It became associated with a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The plan on the event day is to place blooms at additional sites and also refresh the memorials in places he has honored before, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the events and his personal experiences. “I’ve recorded quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

He desires his work – and