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In 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger initiated one of his final important works. Known for introducing art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to global challenges from peace activism to vegetarianism. Via a concise video message, he issued a call for a international event to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to commemorate our planet on November 4th, 2015,” he stated, encouraging artists and creatives to resist the steady eradication of species. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore domains that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

In this way Remember Nature came into being, a day when creatives nationwide developed works to the escalating planetary emergency. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his last days, notes his sense of urgency. “There was a profound sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I just said – we must act now. Let’s not wait for funding or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

A Decade Later

After ten years, Remember Nature hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but supporters think its influence can still be seen in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their methods. That’s why she is restaging it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Included in the featured creators involved this time are A Man Called Adam and other notable figures. All participants have produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be presented on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

In conversation with the artist, she is on site in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. According to her, the planning and planting sessions have already incorporated learning about measurements (calculating the gaps in the orchard), genetics (discussing the genetic makeup), and history (researching the backgrounds of how various cultivars came to the UK).

Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that releases red juice. They all have histories attached. The ancient variety was introduced by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that dropped off 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, on their next shopping trip, to read the label and see their names and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Cultural Projects Nationwide

At the capital, one artist’s work about extinction will involve participants exploring Tate Modern on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been disappeared in recent years. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the exhibition spaces using special pens. When located, a bell will ring and a reading will be conducted to remember that particular glacier.

Meanwhile, up in another location, an artist will be hosting a open display about our separation from nature, as well as organizing a shared meal, made using regional food. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is streaming her musical project, in which local singers begin a project to use music to heal flora in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be engaging schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is hoping to fill an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that document their hopes and fears for the future. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as grown-ups’,” she says in her public appeal. “What children have to offer to the world is something quite unique and perhaps it can provoke a sense of responsibility from each person. Children are innocent. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about fear – it should be about optimism and making sure that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Paul Harfleet’s work also resonates for children. Drawing on past experience, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is aiming to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a walking tour of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. That ongoing series commenced following he faced several events of homophobic abuse on a single day. 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 shared by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “It seems pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

He picked the flower not just for the direct association – it has long been a slur – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated 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 additional sites and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the occurrences and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few since I last planted,” he says with regret.

Advancing Positively

Harfleet hopes his work – and