🔗 Share this article

Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger initiated one of his last major projects. Recognized for pioneering self-destructive creations, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting global challenges from anti-nuclear advocacy to ethical eating. Through a short video message, he requested support for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“This is my appeal for your participation in this global appeal for a day of action to reflect on the environment on the fourth of November, 2015,” he announced, encouraging artists and creatives to stand against the continuing disappearance of species. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so art will enter realms that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Birth of Remember Nature

Thus Remember Nature was born, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who worked closely with Metzger in his last days, recalls his sense of urgency. “There was a strong sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I just said – let’s not mess around. We shouldn’t hold back for funding or for anyone to green light this. Take action immediately.”

Ten Years On

After ten years, the project may not have triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its influence can still be observed in movements like cultural advocacy groups and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their methods. That’s why she is restaging it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Part of the key participants participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. Each has created visual art, recorded calls to action, and created artworks set to be revealed on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing the artist, she is out in a field in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. As she explains, the planning and planting sessions have already involved learning about mathematics (calculating the planting intervals), genetics (exploring the apple’s DNA), and history (researching the backgrounds of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarcolored sap

“A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries background narratives. The decio apple was brought over by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that fell from a tree and landed on the scientist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more consciously engaged of the environment and the control we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from 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!”

Cultural Projects Nationwide

In London, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will engage visitors looking through a major gallery on a mission to find the ice masses that have been disappeared in modern times. All formations will be depicted on the museum surfaces using invisible ink. Whenever one is found, a chime will sound and a performance will be conducted to honor that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in a northern town, an artist will be hosting a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a communal feast, made using regional food. Over in Newcastle, Uta Kögelsberger is sharing her environmental performance, in which local singers undertake a task to use music to heal flora in a green space.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to decorate a cultural venue in youth creations that document their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Youthful expressions are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “The contributions of youth to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will inspire a feeling of duty from us all. Kids are unbiased. They have fears about the future. But this shouldn’t be about anxiety – it should be about optimism and making sure that they get a future.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Paul Harfleet’s work also connects with children. Drawing on past experience, his feathered initiative involves drawing birds and then embodying them – and for the event he is intending to address a local symbol. He is also conducting a walking tour of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his long-term work over the last two decades. That ongoing series started after he faced multiple occurrences of prejudice on a single day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the spot where it happened and record it – the project has since grown to include incidents shared by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Apparently wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

He picked the bloom not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a slur – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The project on 4 November is to plant pansies at additional sites and also replant flowers in places he has previously memorialised, all the while conversing with those on the walking tour about the occurrences and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and