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Back in 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his final significant endeavors. Known for pioneering auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to responding to societal issues from anti-nuclear advocacy to vegetarianism. Via a concise video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“I call upon you for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, encouraging cultural workers to stand against the continuing disappearance of species. “Our responsibility is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so art will enter domains that are inherently creative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

In this way Remember Nature came into being, a day when creatives nationwide developed works to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his final years, recalls his sense of urgency. “There was a strong sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – we must act now. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to green light this. Let’s just do it.”

Ten Years On

A decade on, Remember Nature hasn’t quite triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its impact can still be seen in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their methods. For this purpose she is relaunching it to commemorate its decade milestone. Part of the featured creators involved this time are A Man Called Adam and other notable figures. Each has created visual art, shared messages, and created artworks set to be revealed on the fourth of November next year.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with one participant, she is working outdoors in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will create a circular grove. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and half educational workshop. She describes, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about mathematics (measuring out the planting intervals), biology (exploring the apple’s DNA), and origins (researching 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 other unusual varieties. We have one apple that releases crimson liquid

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that produces crimson liquid. They all have stories behind them. The historical cultivar was introduced by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more actively aware of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “To many of them, 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 their names and their origin. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Cultural Projects Throughout Britain

In London, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will involve participants exploring a major gallery on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been lost in recent years. All formations will be drawn on the exhibition spaces using invisible ink. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a performance will be held to remember that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, a creative will be presenting a free exhibition about our disconnection from the land, as well as organizing a community dinner, made using sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, a participant is streaming her environmental performance, in which local singers undertake a task to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Young Insights

Following this approach, a featured creator will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to fill an art space in children’s artwork that document their dreams and worries for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are powerful 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 perhaps it can provoke a awareness of obligation from everyone. Kids are unbiased. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about positivity and making sure that they see a better world.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for the initiative he is intending to represent Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a walking tour of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his long-term work over the past twenty years. That ongoing series started after he endured multiple occurrences of discrimination on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the location of every incident and document it – the project has since expanded to include incidents reported by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the clear connection – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The project on Remember Nature day is to place blooms at fresh spots and also renew the tributes in places he has honored before, all the while conversing with those on the itinerant journey about the incidents and his personal experiences. “We’ve seen quite a few following earlier installations,” he says sadly.

Moving Forward with Hope

Harfleet hopes his work – and