🔗 Share this article

In 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his last significant endeavors. Famed for creating art that erases itself, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting human struggles from nuclear disarmament to plant-based living. Via a concise video message, he issued a call for a international event to honor the environment.

“This is my appeal for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on 4 November 2015,” he stated, urging cultural workers to stand against the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Nature Remembrance

In this way Remember Nature came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who supported Metzger in his later life, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. Let’s not wait for funding or for anyone to green light this. Take action immediately.”

Ten Years On

A decade on, Remember Nature did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its impact can still be seen in initiatives like artist-led declarations and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the environmental impact of their work. This is the reason she is relaunching it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Among the 18 lead artists taking part currently are Yu-Chen Wang and Anya Gallaccio. All participants have created visual art, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be unveiled on the fourth of November next year.

Sowing Change

In conversation with one participant, she is on site in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a circular grove. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. According to her, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about maths (spacing the planting intervals), biology (discussing the hereditary traits), and origins (tracing the backgrounds of how various cultivars came to the UK).

A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that releases crimson liquid

“Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarlet-colored sap. Each has stories behind them. The decio apple was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that dropped off a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more consciously engaged 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 read the label and see their names and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

Within the city, a participant’s Book of Loss will involve participants looking through Tate Modern on a quest to find the ice masses that have been lost in recent years. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the exhibition spaces using invisible ink. Whenever one is found, a alert will occur and a performance will be conducted to honor that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in Barrow-in-Furness, an artist will be putting on a public show about our disconnection from the land, as well as organizing a shared meal, made using organic, local produce. Further north, Uta Kögelsberger is streaming her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which community vocalists undertake a task to sing plants back to health in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to cover a cultural venue in children’s artwork that document their aspirations and concerns for the years ahead. “Children’s words and images are compelling because they’re not as inhibited as mature perspectives,” she says in her public appeal. “The contributions of youth to the world is something distinctive and it may inspire a awareness of obligation from each person. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about fear – it should be about positivity and making sure that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Paul Harfleet’s work also connects with children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for the event he is intending to represent Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also organizing a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. This endeavor began when he endured multiple occurrences of discrimination on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and photograph it – the project has since grown to cover events reported by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the clear connection – it has long been a slur – but also because its etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The intention on 4 November is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also renew the tributes in places he has honored before, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the occurrences and his recollections. “We’ve seen quite a few following earlier installations,” he says with regret.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and