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Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger initiated one of his last significant endeavors. Recognized for pioneering art that erases itself, Metzger had dedicated his life to responding to societal issues from nuclear disarmament to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your participation in this international summons for a day of action to reflect on the environment on 4 November 2015,” he announced, urging artists and creatives to stand against the steady eradication of living beings. “Our task is to remind people of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are inherently creative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

In this way the environmental art day was born, a day when artists across the country created responses 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 close of his days,” she says. “I just said – don’t delay. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

Ten Years On

Ten years later, the project may not have sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but supporters think its legacy can still be observed in initiatives like cultural advocacy groups and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the environmental impact of their work. For this purpose she is restaging it to mark its ten-year mark. Included in the key participants involved this time are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. All participants have created visual art, shared messages, and created artworks set to be presented on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

Interviewing Anya Gallaccio, she is out in a field in Kent, assisting with planting apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. According to her, the planning and planting sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (calculating the planting intervals), genetics (discussing the apple’s DNA), and origins (researching the stories of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice

“Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarlet-colored sap. Each has histories attached. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that fell from a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted 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, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see their names and their origin. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

Within the city, a participant’s work about extinction will engage visitors searching Tate Modern on a journey to find the ice masses that have been lost in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the exhibition spaces using special pens. Whenever one is found, a chime will sound and a reading will be conducted to remember that specific ice mass.

At the same time, up in Barrow-in-Furness, an artist will be presenting a free exhibition about our separation from nature, as well as organizing a shared meal, made using regional food. Further north, Uta Kögelsberger is sharing her environmental performance, in which regional performers begin a project to sing plants back to health in a local park.

Youth Perspectives

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be working with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is aiming to cover an art space in children’s artwork that capture their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are compelling because they’re not as trammelled as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can inspire a sense of responsibility from each person. Youth is pure. They have fears about the future. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is planning to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his long-term work over the past twenty years. That ongoing series began when he faced several events of homophobic abuse on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since grown to include incidents reported by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the pansy not just for the clear connection – 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 negative trait,” he says.

The plan on Remember Nature day is to plant pansies at additional sites 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. “There’s been quite a few following earlier installations,” he says with regret.

Progressing Optimistically

He desires his work – and