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Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate major projects. Recognized for pioneering self-destructive creations, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting global challenges from anti-nuclear advocacy to plant-based living. Via a concise video message, he issued a call for a global day of action to celebrate the natural world.

“This is my appeal for your engagement in this global appeal for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he declared, encouraging makers and thinkers to stand against the continuing disappearance of species. “Our responsibility is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

And so the environmental art day was established, a day when artists across the country developed works to the ongoing environmental crisis. One of the curators, who supported Metzger in his later life, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a profound sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I just said – let’s not mess around. We shouldn’t hold back for funding or for anyone to green light this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

A decade on, the initiative did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but supporters think its legacy can still be observed in movements like Culture Declares and climate activism networks, as well as in how artists approach the eco-friendliness of their practices. That’s why she is reviving it to commemorate its ten-year mark. Part of the 18 lead artists taking part currently are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. All participants have created visual art, made video appeals, and produced installations set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing the artist, she is out in a field in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and part learning experience. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (spacing the planting intervals), science (discussing the apple’s DNA), and history (tracing the journeys of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).

Several the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that produces crimson liquid

“A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that produces crimson liquid. Each has stories behind them. The ancient variety was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that dropped off a tree and landed on the physicist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the control we have over it. “In their experience, 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 their names and their origin. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Nationwide

Within the city, a participant’s Book of Loss will engage visitors searching a major gallery on a journey to find the ice masses that have been vanished in recent years. Each glacier will be drawn on the museum surfaces using ultraviolet markers. When located, a chime will sound and a recitation will be conducted to remember that individual formation.

At the same time, up in another location, a creative will be hosting a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as holding a shared meal, cooked from sustainable ingredients. In another city, an artist is broadcasting her musical project, in which local singers undertake a task to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Following this approach, a featured creator will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is hoping to decorate an art space in youth creations that document their aspirations and concerns for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as trammelled as mature perspectives,” she says in her recorded message. “The contributions of youth to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will stimulate a sense of responsibility from each person. Kids are unbiased. They have concerns for tomorrow. But this shouldn’t be about anxiety – it should be about optimism and our responsibility that they get a future.”

Memorials and Memory

Another artist’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves illustrating avians and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is aiming to address an iconic figure. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. The project commenced following he faced multiple occurrences of discrimination on a single day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the site of each occurrence and photograph it – the project has since expanded to include incidents shared by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a slur – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” 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 talking to those on the walking tour about the events and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Moving Forward with Hope

The artist wishes his work – and