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Back in 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate important works. Known for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had spent a lifetime to addressing human struggles from nuclear disarmament to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he issued a call for a international event to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on 4 November 2015,” he declared, encouraging artists and creatives to oppose the continuing disappearance of species. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

Thus Remember Nature came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the unfolding climate catastrophe. One of the curators, who worked closely with Metzger in his later life, notes his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – we must act now. We shouldn’t hold back for sponsorship or for anyone to authorize this. Take action immediately.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, the initiative hasn’t quite triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its impact can still be seen in movements like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their methods. For this purpose she is reviving it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Included in the featured creators participating now are Cornelia Parker and prominent artists. Each has designed posters, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be presented on the fourth of November next year.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is on site in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and part learning experience. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already involved learning about measurements (calculating the planting intervals), science (exploring the apple’s DNA), and origins (tracing the stories of how distinct varieties were introduced to England).

A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarlet-colored sap. Each has histories attached. The ancient variety was imported by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that dropped off a tree and landed on the scientist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was urging them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see their names and the source. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Throughout Britain

Within the city, a participant’s project on disappearance will engage visitors searching Tate Modern on a journey to find the frozen formations that have been disappeared in recent years. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using special pens. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a reading will be performed to honor that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in another location, an artist will be putting on a open display about our separation from nature, as well as organizing a shared meal, prepared with regional food. Further north, an artist is streaming her environmental performance, in which local singers embark on a mission to sing plants back to health in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, another participant will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to fill Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in children’s artwork that capture their aspirations and concerns for the future. “Youthful expressions are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as mature perspectives,” she says in her call to action video. “What children have to offer to the world is something quite unique and perhaps it can provoke a awareness of obligation from each person. Children are innocent. They have fears about the future. But this shouldn’t be about anxiety – it should be about optimism and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’s work also appeals to children. With a background in performance, his Birds Can Fly involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for the initiative he is aiming to tackle a local symbol. He is also staging a itinerant journey of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his ongoing series over the past twenty years. That ongoing series commenced following he experienced multiple occurrences of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. To counter this, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and document 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 wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a derogatory label – 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 project on Remember Nature day is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also renew the tributes in places he has previously memorialised, all the while conversing with those on the guided walk about the incidents and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Advancing Positively

Harfleet hopes his work – and