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In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his final significant endeavors. Famed for introducing art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to addressing human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. Via a concise video message, he requested support for a international event to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this global appeal for a day of action to commemorate our planet on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, encouraging cultural workers to oppose the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “Our task is to remind people of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Nature Remembrance

And so the Nature Remembrance initiative was established, a day when artists across the country created responses to the unfolding climate catastrophe. One of the curators, who cared for Metzger in his later life, remembers his sense of urgency. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I urged him – we must act now. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

After Ten Years

After ten years, Remember Nature may not have triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its influence can still be observed in movements like Culture Declares and climate activism networks, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their methods. This is the reason she is restaging it to mark its 10-year anniversary. Part of the 18 lead artists taking part currently are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. They have all designed posters, shared messages, and developed pieces set to be revealed on the fourth of November next year.

Planting Hope

In conversation with one participant, she is on site in Kent, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Working with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. According to her, the design and cultivation sessions have already involved learning about mathematics (spacing the distances between trees), science (discussing the apple’s DNA), and history (mapping the stories of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid

“A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties,” she explains. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarlet-colored sap. They all have histories attached. The historical cultivar was imported by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that dropped off a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more actively aware of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was prompting them, on their next shopping trip, to check the packaging and see the variety and where they were grown. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Cultural Projects Throughout Britain

Within the city, a participant’s Book of Loss will include attendees searching a major gallery on a journey to find the frozen formations that have been disappeared in recent years. All formations will be illustrated on the exhibition spaces using special pens. When located, a bell will ring and a recitation will be conducted to commemorate that specific ice mass.

Meanwhile, up in a northern town, a creative will be presenting a free exhibition about our separation from nature, as well as hosting a community dinner, cooked from regional food. Further north, Uta Kögelsberger is broadcasting her musical project, in which regional performers embark on a mission to use music to heal flora in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Following this approach, Cornelia Parker will be engaging schoolchildren – on the actual event she is aiming to cover Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in children’s artwork that capture their aspirations and concerns for the tomorrow. “Kids’ art are compelling because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “The contributions of youth to the world is something truly special and perhaps it can provoke a sense of responsibility from each person. Children are innocent. They have fears about the future. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about positivity and our responsibility that they have a tomorrow.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for the event he is planning to address an iconic figure. He is also organizing a itinerant journey of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. That ongoing series started after he endured multiple occurrences of discrimination on a single day. In response, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since grown to cover events experienced by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Apparently pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

Harfleet chose the pansy not just for the direct association – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The plan on 4 November is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has honored before, all the while conversing with those on the walking tour about the incidents and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few since I last planted,” he says with regret.

Advancing Positively

He desires his work – and