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Back in 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger initiated one of his last important works. Known for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to ethical eating. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a international event to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking 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, inviting artists and creatives to oppose the continuing disappearance of living beings. “Our task is to make audiences aware of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so art will enter realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

In this way Remember Nature was established, a day when artists across the country created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who worked closely with Metzger in his last days, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “He had a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – let’s not mess around. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to approve this. Take action immediately.”

A Decade Later

After ten years, the initiative did not sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its influence can still be observed in campaigns like Culture Declares and climate activism networks, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their work. That’s why she is restaging it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Included in the 18 lead artists taking part currently are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. Each has designed posters, made video appeals, and developed pieces set to be revealed on the fourth of November next year.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with the artist, she is working outdoors in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a coiled garden. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and half educational workshop. According to her, the preparation and sowing sessions have already included learning about maths (measuring out the gaps in the orchard), biology (studying the hereditary traits), and origins (tracing the backgrounds of how different apples were introduced to England).

Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces crimson liquid

“A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the Duck’s Bill,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries background narratives. The ancient variety was imported by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that fell from a tree and landed on the scientist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more actively aware of nature and the control we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, when they go shopping, to look on the bag and see their names and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Cultural Projects Across the Country

Within the city, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will include attendees searching Tate Modern on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in the past decade. All formations will be illustrated on the gallery’s windows and walls using invisible ink. Whenever one is found, a alert will occur and a reading will be conducted to remember that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in another location, a creative will be presenting a public show about our separation from nature, as well as organizing a communal feast, prepared with sustainable ingredients. In another city, a participant is sharing her musical project, in which local singers begin a project to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be working with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is hoping to fill an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that document their aspirations and concerns for the tomorrow. “Youthful expressions are compelling because they’re not as restricted as grown-ups’,” she says in her public appeal. “What children have to offer to the world is something truly special and perhaps it can provoke a awareness of obligation from everyone. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But this shouldn’t be about fear – it should be about optimism and making sure that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also connects with children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative 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, visiting various sites that have been part of his long-term work over the last two decades. This endeavor started after he faced three incidents of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since grown to cover events shared by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “It seems wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the pansy not just for the clear connection – it has long been a slur – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The project on 4 November is to plant pansies at additional sites and also refresh the memorials in places he has honored before, all the while discussing with those on the guided walk about the events and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says mournfully.

Advancing Positively

Harfleet hopes his work – and