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In 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger launched one of his ultimate important works. Famed for creating art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to global challenges from peace activism to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he made a plea for a global day of action to honor the environment.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this international summons for a day of action to remember nature on 4 November 2015,” he declared, inviting artists and creatives to resist the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “The mission is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore domains that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Inception of Nature Remembrance

Thus Remember Nature came into being, a day when artists across the country developed works to the escalating planetary emergency. Jo Joelson, who supported Metzger in his final years, remembers his sense of urgency. “He had a strong sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “My advice was – we must act now. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to authorize this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

A decade on, the project did not sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its impact can still be observed in initiatives like Culture Declares and environmental protests, as well as in how creatives consider the sustainability of their work. This is the reason she is restaging it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Among the 18 lead artists taking part currently are A Man Called Adam and Anya Gallaccio. Each has designed posters, made video appeals, and produced installations set to be revealed on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

When speaking to Anya Gallaccio, she is out in a field in a rural area, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Engaging 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 (studying the genetic makeup), and origins (tracing the stories of how various cultivars were introduced to England).

Several the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces crimson liquid

“Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill,” she explains. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarlet-colored sap. Each has background narratives. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of nature and the influence we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was urging them, when they go shopping, to look on the bag and see their names and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

At the capital, a participant’s work about extinction will involve participants exploring Tate Modern on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been lost in modern times. Each glacier will be depicted on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. Each discovery, a bell will ring and a performance will be conducted to remember that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, an artist will be hosting a public show about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a community dinner, cooked from sustainable ingredients. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is broadcasting her environmental performance, in which local singers begin a project to use music to heal flora in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be working with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is planning to cover a cultural venue in youth creations that express their aspirations and concerns for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can inspire a feeling of duty from everyone. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about anxiety – it should be about optimism and our responsibility that they get a future.”

Memorials and Memory

A participant’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves illustrating avians and then performing as birds – and for Remember Nature day he is intending to address an iconic figure. He is also organizing a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. This endeavor started after he experienced three incidents of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. In response, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the location of every incident and photograph it – the project has since grown to cover events experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Apparently pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

Harfleet chose the bloom not just for the direct association – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The project on the event day is to plant pansies at additional sites and also renew the tributes in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the itinerant journey about the events and his memories of them. “I’ve recorded quite a few since I last planted,” he says mournfully.

Moving Forward with Hope

The artist wishes his work – and