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Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his last major projects. Recognized for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had spent a lifetime to addressing societal issues from peace activism to plant-based living. Through a short video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to remember nature.

“This is my appeal for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on the fourth of November, 2015,” he declared, encouraging artists and creatives to resist the ongoing loss of species. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into realms that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

And so Remember Nature was born, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the unfolding climate catastrophe. An organizer, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, recalls his sense of urgency. “There was a great sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – we must act now. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

Ten years later, Remember Nature may not have sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but supporters think its impact can still be observed in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and environmental protests, as well as in how creatives consider the sustainability of their methods. That’s why she is restaging it to commemorate its decade milestone. Included in the 18 lead artists participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and other notable figures. All participants have created visual art, shared messages, and created artworks set to be unveiled on 4 November 2025.

Sowing Change

In conversation with one participant, she is working outdoors in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will create a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and somewhat instructive. She describes, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about mathematics (measuring out the gaps in the orchard), genetics (discussing the apple’s DNA), and origins (tracing the backgrounds of how various cultivars came to the UK).

A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties,” she explains. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice. They all have histories attached. The decio apple was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that dropped off a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the control we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to check the packaging and see what they’re called and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Cultural Projects Throughout Britain

At the capital, one artist’s project on disappearance will engage visitors looking through Tate Modern on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been lost in the past decade. All formations will be depicted on the gallery’s windows and walls using special pens. Each discovery, a bell will ring and a performance will be performed to commemorate that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, an artist will be presenting a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a shared meal, prepared with sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, a participant is sharing her musical project, in which community vocalists undertake a task to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be engaging schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is hoping to cover an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their dreams and worries for the future. “Children’s words and images are powerful because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “Young people’s input to the world is something truly special and it may provoke a awareness of obligation from everyone. Children are innocent. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about fear – it should be about hope and making sure that they get a future.”

Memorials and Memory

A participant’s work also resonates for children. As a former drag queen, his Birds Can Fly involves drawing birds and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is planning to tackle an iconic figure. He is also conducting a itinerant journey of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his ongoing series over the recent decades. That ongoing series began when he experienced several events of discrimination on a one occasion. In response, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since spiralled to include incidents reported by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the pansy not just for the clear connection – 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 contemplative, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The plan on 4 November is to sow flowers at additional sites and also renew the tributes in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the guided walk about the events and his personal experiences. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Advancing Positively

Harfleet hopes his work – and