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Back in 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate important works. Known for pioneering art that erases itself, Metzger had spent a lifetime to responding to global challenges from nuclear disarmament to plant-based living. Via a concise 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 4 November 2015,” he announced, urging artists and creatives to resist the steady eradication of living beings. “Our task is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so art will enter realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Nature Remembrance

Thus the Nature Remembrance initiative came into being, a day when creatives nationwide developed works to the escalating planetary emergency. Jo Joelson, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, recalls his drive for action. “There was a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “My advice was – we must act now. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

After ten years, Remember Nature may not have sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but Joelson believes its impact can still be seen in initiatives like artist-led declarations and climate activism networks, as well as in how creatives consider the sustainability of their methods. This is the reason she is relaunching it to mark its decade milestone. Included in the 18 lead artists involved this time are A Man Called Adam and other notable figures. All participants have produced imagery, shared messages, and produced installations set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Sowing Change

When speaking to the artist, she is working outdoors in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will create a coiled garden. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and somewhat instructive. She describes, the design and cultivation sessions have already included learning about maths (calculating the distances between trees), genetics (discussing the apple’s DNA), and origins (mapping the stories of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” she explains. “We have one apple that releases crimson liquid. They all have histories attached. The historical cultivar was introduced by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that dropped off a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more actively aware of the environment and the influence we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was urging them, on their next shopping trip, to check the packaging and see their names and their origin. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Nationwide

At the capital, one artist’s work about extinction will involve participants searching Tate Modern on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been lost in modern times. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. When located, a bell will ring and a performance will be held to honor that specific ice mass.

At the same time, up in another location, a creative will be putting on a public show about our disconnection from the land, as well as organizing a communal feast, prepared with sustainable ingredients. In another city, an artist is streaming her musical project, in which local singers begin a project to sing plants back to health in a local park.

Young Insights

Following this approach, another participant will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to decorate Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that document their aspirations and concerns for the tomorrow. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as grown-ups’,” she says in her public appeal. “The contributions of youth to the world is something truly special and it may stimulate a awareness of obligation from us all. Kids are unbiased. They have concerns for tomorrow. But this shouldn’t be about fear – it should be about positivity and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Paul Harfleet’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves drawing birds and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is intending to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also organizing a itinerant journey of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. That ongoing series started after he experienced multiple occurrences of prejudice on a particular day. In response, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since expanded to include incidents experienced by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “It seems pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected 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 was linked to a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The plan on the event day is to place blooms at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while discussing with those on the itinerant journey about the occurrences and his personal experiences. “I’ve recorded quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

He desires his work – and