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During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate important works. Recognized for introducing art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting human struggles from peace activism to vegetarianism. Via a concise video message, he requested support for a international event to celebrate the natural world.

“This is my appeal for your involvement in this global appeal for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, urging makers and thinkers to resist the steady eradication of living beings. “Our responsibility is to help the public recall of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

In this way Remember Nature was born, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the ongoing environmental crisis. An organizer, who supported Metzger in his final years, recalls his sense of urgency. “There was a great sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – we must act now. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

After ten years, Remember Nature may not have incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its impact can still be felt in movements like artist-led declarations and climate activism networks, as well as in how creatives consider the sustainability of their methods. For this purpose she is restaging it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Part of the key participants participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. Each has created visual art, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be presented on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

When speaking to Anya Gallaccio, she is on site in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and half educational workshop. As she explains, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about mathematics (calculating the gaps in the orchard), science (exploring the hereditary traits), and geography (researching the stories of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. Each has background narratives. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that descended from a tree and landed on the scientist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more consciously engaged of the environment and the influence we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to read the label and see their names and their origin. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Artistic Responses Throughout Britain

In London, one artist’s project on disappearance will involve participants searching a major gallery on a quest to find the ice masses that have been disappeared in modern times. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the museum surfaces using special pens. Each discovery, a chime will sound and a recitation will be conducted to commemorate that specific ice mass.

Meanwhile, up in a northern town, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a public show about our disconnection from the land, as well as organizing a communal feast, cooked from organic, local produce. Further north, Uta Kögelsberger is sharing her environmental performance, in which community vocalists embark on a mission to perform for vegetation in a green space.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is aiming to decorate an art space in youth creations that capture their aspirations and concerns for the future. “Youthful expressions are powerful because they’re not as restricted as adults’,” she says in her public appeal. “Young people’s input to the world is something truly special and perhaps it can provoke a sense of responsibility from us all. Children are innocent. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about anxiety – it should be about positivity and making sure that they get a future.”

Memorials and Memory

A participant’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his Birds Can Fly involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is aiming to address a local symbol. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. That ongoing series started after he experienced three incidents of discrimination on a single day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the site of each occurrence and photograph it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Apparently birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

He picked the flower not just for the direct association – it has long been a slur – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The intention on 4 November is to plant pansies at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the occurrences and his recollections. “I’ve recorded quite a few following earlier installations,” he says sadly.

Moving Forward with Hope

Harfleet hopes his work – and