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During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his last important works. Famed for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting societal issues from peace activism to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, urging cultural workers to stand against the steady eradication of living beings. “Our task is to make audiences aware of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so art will enter territories that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

And so the environmental art day came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his final years, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “There was a great sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – let’s not mess around. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to green light this. Take action immediately.”

Ten Years On

Ten years later, Remember Nature may not have incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its legacy can still be seen in movements like Culture Declares and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their methods. For this purpose she is restaging it to commemorate its decade milestone. Among the featured creators taking part currently are Cornelia Parker and prominent artists. Each has designed posters, shared messages, and produced installations set to be presented on the fourth of November next year.

Planting Hope

When speaking to the artist, she is working outdoors in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will create a circular grove. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. As she explains, the planning and planting sessions have already involved learning about maths (measuring out the gaps in the orchard), science (exploring the hereditary traits), and history (mapping the journeys of how different apples were introduced to England).

A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that produces scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries histories attached. The historical cultivar was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that dropped off a tree and struck the physicist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of nature and the power we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, when they go shopping, to check the packaging and see what they’re called and their origin. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

Within the city, a participant’s Book of Loss will include attendees looking through a major gallery on a journey to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in the past decade. Each glacier will be illustrated on the museum surfaces using invisible ink. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a recitation will be held to remember that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in a northern town, a creative will be hosting a public show about our separation from nature, as well as organizing a community dinner, cooked from organic, local produce. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is sharing her musical project, in which local singers undertake a task to sing plants back to health in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be engaging schoolchildren – on the actual event she is aiming to fill Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that express their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Children’s words and images are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as grown-ups’,” she says in her call to action video. “What children have to offer to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can stimulate a sense of responsibility from each person. Children are innocent. They have fears about the future. But this shouldn’t be about fear – it should be about optimism and making sure that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Paul Harfleet’s work also appeals to children. Drawing on past experience, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is intending to address Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also staging a itinerant journey of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. The project started after he faced three incidents of prejudice on a one occasion. To counter this, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since grown to cover events shared by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Apparently wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

Harfleet chose the pansy 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 was linked to a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The intention 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 walking tour about the incidents and his personal experiences. “I’ve recorded quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Moving Forward with Hope

The artist wishes his work – and