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During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his ultimate important works. Famed for pioneering auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to societal issues from anti-nuclear advocacy to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he requested support for a global day of action to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this international summons for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, encouraging cultural workers to resist the steady eradication of species. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

Thus the Nature Remembrance initiative came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the unfolding climate catastrophe. One of the curators, who cared for Metzger in his final years, notes his drive for action. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. We shouldn’t hold back for financial support or for anyone to authorize this. Let’s just do it.”

Ten Years On

After ten years, the project hasn’t quite triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but Joelson believes its influence can still be observed in movements like cultural advocacy groups and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their practices. For this purpose she is reviving it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Among the key participants taking part currently are A Man Called Adam and other notable figures. All participants have designed posters, shared messages, and created artworks set to be unveiled on the fourth of November next year.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in the countryside, helping plant apple trees that will create a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. She describes, the planning and planting sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (spacing the planting intervals), genetics (exploring the hereditary traits), and geography (mapping the backgrounds of how different apples were introduced to England).

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

“Several the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. Every one carries histories attached. The historical cultivar was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and struck the physicist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more actively aware of nature and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to check the packaging and see the variety and their origin. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Cultural Projects Nationwide

At the capital, a participant’s work about extinction will involve participants looking through Tate Modern on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in the past decade. All formations will be depicted on the gallery’s windows and walls using special pens. Whenever one is found, a bell will ring and a performance will be performed to remember that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in another location, an artist will be hosting a open display about our separation from nature, as well as holding a communal feast, made using sustainable ingredients. Further north, a participant is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers embark on a mission to use music to heal flora in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Following this approach, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to decorate a cultural venue in children’s artwork that capture their dreams and worries for the future. “Children’s words and images are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and it may inspire a sense of responsibility from each person. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about optimism and making sure that they see a better world.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Another artist’s work also connects with children. Drawing on past experience, his avian project involves drawing birds and then embodying them – and for the event he is aiming to tackle a local symbol. He is also organizing a guided walk of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his ongoing series over the recent decades. The project began when he faced several events of prejudice on a one occasion. In response, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “It seems birds consume them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

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

The project on Remember Nature day is to place blooms at fresh spots and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the guided walk about the events and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

The artist wishes his work – and