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In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his final significant endeavors. Known for introducing art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a international event to remember nature.

“I call upon you for your engagement in this international summons for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he announced, encouraging cultural workers to stand against the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “Our responsibility is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so art will enter territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

In this way the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the ongoing environmental crisis. An organizer, who supported Metzger in his later life, remembers his sense of urgency. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – let’s not mess around. Let’s not wait for financial support or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

After ten years, the initiative hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its legacy can still be felt in movements like artist-led declarations and climate activism networks, as well as in how creatives consider the eco-friendliness of their practices. That’s why she is relaunching it to celebrate its decade milestone. Part of the 18 lead artists participating now are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. All participants have created visual art, made video appeals, and produced installations set to be revealed on the fourth of November next year.

Planting Hope

Interviewing one participant, she is on site in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will create a circular grove. Working with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and somewhat instructive. According to her, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (calculating the distances between trees), biology (exploring the hereditary traits), and origins (tracing the stories of how various cultivars came to the UK).

Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid

“A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces red juice. Each has background narratives. The decio apple was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and hit the physicist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more actively aware of the natural world and the power we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, on their next shopping trip, 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 Book of Loss will engage visitors exploring a major gallery on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in modern times. Each glacier will be drawn on the museum surfaces using ultraviolet markers. Each discovery, a chime will sound and a recitation will be performed to commemorate that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in another location, Maddi Nicholson will be hosting a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a communal feast, prepared with sustainable ingredients. Further north, a participant is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which community vocalists undertake a task to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to fill Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their dreams and worries for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are powerful because they’re not as restricted as mature perspectives,” she says in her public appeal. “What children have to offer to the world is something quite unique and it may stimulate a feeling of duty from us all. Children are innocent. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about worry – it should be about hope and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Paul Harfleet’s work also appeals to children. Drawing on past experience, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is intending to tackle an iconic figure. He is also organizing a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his long-term work over the last two decades. The project started after he faced three incidents of prejudice on a one occasion. In response, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and photograph it – the project has since spiralled to include incidents shared by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Apparently wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

He picked the bloom not just for the direct association – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The intention on the event day is to plant pansies at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while conversing with those on the itinerant journey about the events and his personal experiences. “There’s been quite a few following earlier installations,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

He desires his work – and