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Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate significant endeavors. Recognized for introducing art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to addressing global challenges from anti-nuclear advocacy to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to honor the environment.

“I call upon you for your participation in this global appeal for a day of action to reflect on the environment on 4 November 2015,” he declared, inviting cultural workers to oppose the continuing disappearance of living beings. “Our responsibility is to remind people of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Birth of Nature Remembrance

In this way the Nature Remembrance initiative was born, a day when artists across the country created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. One of the curators, who worked closely with Metzger in his last days, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a great 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 sponsorship or for anyone to authorize this. Take action immediately.”

Ten Years On

A decade on, Remember Nature did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its impact can still be felt in campaigns like Culture Declares and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how makers handle the sustainability of their methods. That’s why she is restaging it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Among the key participants participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. They have all designed posters, shared messages, and developed pieces set to be revealed on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with one participant, she is working outdoors in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and somewhat instructive. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (spacing the planting intervals), science (discussing the hereditary traits), and origins (researching the journeys of how different apples came to the UK).

Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that releases crimson liquid. They all have stories behind them. The decio apple was introduced by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that fell from a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more consciously engaged of the natural world and the power 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 look on the bag and see the variety and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Artistic Responses Throughout Britain

Within the city, Youngsook Choi’s project on disappearance will engage visitors looking through an art institution on a journey to find the ice masses that have been lost in the past decade. Each glacier will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a reading will be conducted to honor that specific ice mass.

At the same time, up in Barrow-in-Furness, Maddi Nicholson will be hosting a free exhibition about our separation from nature, as well as holding a community dinner, cooked from sustainable ingredients. Further north, an artist is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers begin a project to sing plants back to health in a green space.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to cover an art space in youth creations that capture their dreams and worries for the future. “Kids’ art are compelling because they’re not as trammelled as mature perspectives,” she says in her public appeal. “The contributions of youth to the world is something quite unique and hopefully it will provoke a sense of responsibility from everyone. Children are innocent. They have anxieties about what’s next. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about positivity and us ensuring that they see a better world.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also appeals to children. With a background in performance, his Birds Can Fly involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for the initiative he is intending to represent Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. The project commenced following he faced several events of discrimination on a single day. In response, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and record it – the project has since grown to include incidents experienced by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

The artist selected the flower not just for the direct association – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The intention on 4 November is to place blooms at fresh spots and also renew the tributes in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the walking tour about the occurrences and his recollections. “I’ve recorded quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and