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During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his last major projects. Recognized for pioneering auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to human struggles from nuclear disarmament to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he requested support for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“This is my appeal for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to commemorate our planet on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, inviting cultural workers to oppose the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so art will enter territories that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

And so the environmental art day came into being, a day when creatives nationwide developed works to the ongoing environmental crisis. One of the curators, who cared for Metzger in his later life, remembers his drive for action. “There was a great sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – we must act now. No need to pause for financial support or for anyone to authorize this. Take action immediately.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, the initiative hasn’t quite triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but supporters think its influence can still be felt in campaigns like artist-led declarations and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their work. That’s why she is reviving it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Part of the featured creators involved this time are A Man Called Adam and other notable figures. All participants have produced imagery, made video appeals, and developed pieces set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Sowing Change

Interviewing Anya Gallaccio, she is on site in the countryside, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and somewhat instructive. According to her, the design and cultivation sessions have already involved learning about mathematics (measuring out the planting intervals), genetics (discussing the genetic makeup), and geography (mapping the stories of how various cultivars were introduced to England).

Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the Duck’s Bill,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces crimson liquid. They all have background narratives. The decio apple was imported by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that descended from a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more consciously engaged of the environment and the control we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was urging them, next time they were out, to read the label and see the variety and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Cultural Projects Throughout Britain

In London, Youngsook Choi’s project on disappearance will engage visitors searching a major gallery on a journey to find the frozen formations that have been disappeared in the past decade. All formations will be depicted on the museum surfaces using special pens. Each discovery, a chime will sound and a recitation will be performed to remember that specific ice mass.

At the same time, up in another location, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as holding a community dinner, prepared with organic, local produce. Over in Newcastle, Uta Kögelsberger is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which community vocalists embark on a mission to sing plants back to health in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be engaging schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is aiming to cover a cultural venue in youth creations that capture their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are compelling because they’re not as trammelled as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “Young people’s input to the world is something quite unique and it may stimulate a sense of responsibility from us all. Kids are unbiased. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about worry – it should be about positivity and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Memorials and Memory

Another artist’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves illustrating avians and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is aiming to represent a local symbol. He is also conducting a guided walk of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. This endeavor started after he experienced three incidents of discrimination on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the site of each occurrence and photograph it – the project has since spiralled to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “It seems pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – 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 4 November is to place blooms at fresh spots and also replant flowers in places he has honored before, all the while discussing with those on the guided walk about the events and his memories of them. “I’ve recorded quite a few since I last planted,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

Harfleet hopes his work – and