🔗 Share this article

During 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate major projects. Recognized for creating auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to ethical eating. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a global day of action to honor the environment.

“This is my appeal for your involvement in this global appeal for a day of action to reflect on the environment on the fourth of November, 2015,” he stated, inviting artists and creatives to oppose the ongoing loss of species. “Our responsibility is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so art will enter domains that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Birth of Nature Remembrance

And so the Nature Remembrance initiative came into being, a day when creatives nationwide produced pieces to the escalating planetary emergency. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his final years, recalls his drive for action. “There was a strong sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “My advice was – let’s not mess around. No need to pause for financial support or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

After Ten Years

After ten years, Remember Nature may not have sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its influence can still be felt in initiatives like Culture Declares and climate activism networks, as well as in how makers handle the environmental impact of their practices. For this purpose she is restaging it to mark its ten-year mark. Among the 18 lead artists participating now are Yu-Chen Wang and other notable figures. Each has created visual art, made video appeals, and developed pieces set to be revealed on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

Interviewing one participant, she is on site in a rural area, assisting with planting apple trees that will develop into a circular grove. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and half educational workshop. According to her, the design and cultivation sessions have already involved learning about mathematics (calculating the gaps in the orchard), genetics (discussing the genetic makeup), and history (researching the stories of how different apples arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that releases crimson liquid. Every one carries stories behind them. The decio apple was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and hit Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more consciously engaged of the environment and the influence we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was prompting them, when they go shopping, to look on the bag and see their names and their origin. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Cultural Projects Throughout Britain

At the capital, a participant’s work about extinction will involve participants exploring an art institution on a quest to find the frozen formations that have been disappeared in recent years. Each glacier will be illustrated on the museum surfaces using special pens. Each discovery, a chime will sound and a recitation will be conducted to honor that particular glacier.

Meanwhile, up in a northern town, a creative will be putting on a open display about our separation from nature, as well as holding a shared meal, prepared with sustainable ingredients. Further north, Uta Kögelsberger is sharing her musical project, in which local singers begin a project to use music to heal flora in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Following this approach, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to fill a cultural venue in youth creations that document their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are compelling because they’re not as inhibited as mature perspectives,” she says in her call to action video. “What children have to offer to the world is something quite unique and hopefully it will stimulate a sense of responsibility from us all. Children are innocent. 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.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Another artist’s work also resonates for children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves illustrating avians and then embodying them – and for the event he is aiming to tackle an iconic figure. He is also conducting a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the last two decades. This endeavor began when he faced several events of discrimination on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the location of every incident and photograph it – the project has since grown to cover events shared 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 ephemeral memorial.”

He picked the bloom not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a slur – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The project on Remember Nature day is to place blooms at new locations and also replant flowers in places he has previously memorialised, all the while discussing with those on the guided walk about the events and his recollections. “I’ve recorded quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

The artist wishes his work – and