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During 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger launched one of his final major projects. Recognized for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting societal issues from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he requested support for a worldwide initiative to remember nature.

“This is my appeal for your participation in this international summons for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he stated, inviting cultural workers to oppose the continuing disappearance of species. “Our responsibility is to remind people of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so art will enter domains that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

In this way the Nature Remembrance initiative was born, a day when creatives nationwide created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his last days, remembers his sense of urgency. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – don’t delay. Let’s not wait for funding or for anyone to authorize this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

Ten years later, Remember Nature may not have triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but organizers feel its legacy can still be observed in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their methods. This is the reason she is restaging it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Included in the featured creators involved this time are A Man Called Adam and other notable figures. Each has designed posters, shared messages, and created artworks set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

Interviewing one participant, she is working outdoors in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. She describes, the planning and planting sessions have already involved learning about maths (calculating the distances between trees), genetics (discussing the hereditary traits), and geography (mapping the backgrounds of how different apples came to the UK).

A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that produces red juice

“Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. They all have stories behind them. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that dropped off a tree and struck the physicist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more consciously engaged of the environment and the control we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was urging them, when they go shopping, to check the packaging and see what they’re called and where they were grown. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Across the Country

In London, Youngsook Choi’s Book of Loss will involve participants exploring a major gallery on a mission to find the ice masses that have been lost in recent years. All formations will be illustrated on the gallery’s windows and walls using invisible ink. Each discovery, a chime will sound and a performance will be conducted to honor that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in a northern town, Maddi Nicholson will be presenting a free exhibition about our disconnection from the land, as well as organizing a shared meal, made using organic, local produce. In another city, a participant is broadcasting her musical project, in which community vocalists begin a project to sing plants back to health in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is planning to cover an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their dreams and worries for the tomorrow. “Youthful expressions are compelling because they’re not as restricted as mature perspectives,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something quite unique and perhaps it can provoke a feeling of duty from each person. Children are innocent. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they have a tomorrow.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Paul Harfleet’s work also connects with children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves sketching winged creatures and then performing as birds – and for the initiative he is aiming to address an iconic figure. He is also organizing a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. This endeavor started after he faced multiple occurrences of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since grown to cover events reported by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the pansy not just for the clear connection – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its name derives from 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 plan on 4 November is to plant pansies at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the guided walk about the incidents and his personal experiences. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and