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In 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger initiated one of his final important works. Recognized for pioneering auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to responding to human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to vegetarianism. In a brief video message, he issued a call for a worldwide initiative to honor the environment.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on the fourth of November, 2015,” he stated, inviting makers and thinkers to oppose the continuing disappearance of species. “Our responsibility is to remind people of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Nature Remembrance

In this way the environmental art day came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who supported Metzger in his later life, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “He had a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. We shouldn’t hold back for financial support or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

Ten years later, Remember Nature did not triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but organizers feel its influence can still be felt in initiatives like artist-led declarations and environmental protests, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their practices. That’s why she is restaging it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Part of the 18 lead artists taking part currently are Cornelia Parker and prominent artists. Each has designed posters, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be revealed on the fourth of November next year.

Planting Hope

Interviewing 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 half educational workshop. According to her, the design and cultivation sessions have already involved learning about measurements (measuring out the gaps in the orchard), genetics (discussing the apple’s DNA), and geography (mapping the stories of how distinct varieties were introduced to England).

A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that releases crimson liquid

“Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. Every one carries histories attached. The ancient variety was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and hit the physicist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more actively aware 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 urging them, on their next shopping trip, to read the label and see the variety and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Across the Country

At the capital, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will engage visitors searching Tate Modern on a journey to find the seven major glaciers that have been lost in modern times. All formations will be depicted on the museum surfaces using special pens. Whenever one is found, a alert will occur and a reading will be performed to commemorate that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in a northern town, a creative will be presenting a public show about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a shared meal, cooked from sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, an artist is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which local singers undertake a task to sing plants back to health in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be engaging schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to cover an art space in youth creations that document their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are compelling because they’re not as trammelled as grown-ups’,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something distinctive and it may inspire a awareness of obligation from each person. Youth is pure. They have anxieties about what’s next. But it isn’t meant to be about worry – it should be about positivity and making sure that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also appeals to children. Drawing on past experience, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is planning to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also organizing a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. This endeavor started after he endured three incidents of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the site of each occurrence and record it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences shared by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly birds consume them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

Harfleet chose the flower not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The plan on the event day is to place blooms at additional sites and also refresh the memorials in places he has honored before, all the while discussing with those on the walking tour about the events and his recollections. “I’ve recorded quite a few following earlier installations,” he says with regret.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and