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During 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his final significant endeavors. Famed for pioneering auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to addressing global challenges from peace activism to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he issued a call for a worldwide initiative to honor the environment.

“This is my appeal for your engagement in this global appeal for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, inviting artists and creatives to stand against the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “Our task is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Birth of Nature Remembrance

In this way the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his last days, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to authorize this. Take action immediately.”

Ten Years On

Ten years later, the initiative may not have sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its impact can still be seen in initiatives like Culture Declares and climate activism networks, as well as in how makers handle the sustainability of their practices. For this purpose she is relaunching it to mark its ten-year mark. Included in the key participants taking part currently are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. All participants have created visual art, made video appeals, and produced installations set to be revealed on the fourth of November next year.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing the artist, she is working outdoors in Kent, assisting with planting apple trees that will develop into a circular grove. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. According to her, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (calculating the distances between trees), science (discussing the hereditary traits), and origins (mapping the journeys of how various cultivars came to the UK).

A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. Each has stories behind them. The historical cultivar was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and struck the scientist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was prompting them, on their next shopping trip, to check the packaging and see the variety and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Throughout Britain

In London, one artist’s work about extinction will involve participants looking through Tate Modern on a quest to find the frozen formations that have been disappeared in the past decade. Each glacier will be depicted on the museum surfaces using ultraviolet markers. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a performance will be performed to honor that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in a northern town, an artist will be putting on a open display about our disconnection from the land, as well as hosting a communal feast, cooked from sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, Uta Kögelsberger is sharing her musical project, in which regional performers embark on a mission to sing plants back to health in a local park.

Young Insights

Similar to other artists, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is planning to cover Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in children’s artwork that express their aspirations and concerns for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are powerful because they’re not as inhibited as grown-ups’,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something distinctive and it may inspire a sense of responsibility from everyone. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about worry – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Memorials and Memory

A participant’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves illustrating avians and then performing as birds – and for the event he is intending to address an iconic figure. He is also staging a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. This endeavor commenced following he endured multiple occurrences of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. In response, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “It seems birds consume them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

Harfleet chose the flower not just for the clear connection – it has long been a derogatory label – 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 negative trait,” he says.

The intention on Remember Nature day is to place blooms at new locations and also replant flowers in places he has previously memorialised, all the while discussing with those on the itinerant journey about the occurrences and his recollections. “I’ve recorded quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Advancing Positively

The artist wishes his work – and