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During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger initiated one of his last major projects. Known for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to responding to global challenges from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he made a plea for a global day of action to honor the environment.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to commemorate our planet on the fourth of November, 2015,” he stated, urging makers and thinkers to stand against the steady eradication of species. “The mission is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into territories that are inherently creative.”

The Birth of Nature Remembrance

Thus the Nature Remembrance initiative was born, a day when artists across the country created responses to the unfolding climate catastrophe. An organizer, who worked closely with Metzger in his later life, notes his drive for action. “There was a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – we must act now. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to authorize this. We should proceed.”

Ten Years On

Ten years later, the project hasn’t quite triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but organizers feel its legacy can still be observed in campaigns like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the eco-friendliness of their methods. For this purpose she is reviving it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Among the 18 lead artists involved this time are Cornelia Parker and Anya Gallaccio. Each has created visual art, shared messages, and created artworks set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

When speaking to Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will create a circular grove. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. She describes, the design and cultivation sessions have already involved learning about measurements (measuring out the distances between trees), science (exploring the genetic makeup), and geography (researching the journeys of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).

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

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries histories attached. The ancient variety was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and struck the physicist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more thoughtfully connected of nature and the control we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, next time they were out, to check the packaging and see the variety and where they were grown. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

At the capital, a participant’s work about extinction will engage visitors exploring an art institution on a quest to find the frozen formations that have been disappeared in recent years. All formations will be depicted on the gallery’s windows and walls using invisible ink. When located, a alert will occur and a recitation will be performed to commemorate that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a public show about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a communal feast, made using sustainable ingredients. Further north, an artist is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers begin a project to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is hoping to decorate Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in youth creations that express their hopes and fears for the future. “Kids’ art are compelling because they’re not as restricted as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “What children have to offer to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can inspire a feeling of duty from us all. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about worry – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

Another artist’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves illustrating avians and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is planning to tackle a local symbol. He is also organizing a walking tour of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. This endeavor commenced following he faced three incidents of prejudice on a particular day. In response, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since spiralled to cover events shared by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

He picked the bloom not just for the direct association – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its name derives from 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 plan on 4 November is to place blooms at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while discussing with those on the guided walk about the incidents and his recollections. “There’s been quite a few following earlier installations,” he says mournfully.

Moving Forward with Hope

He desires his work – and