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Back in 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his final major projects. Known for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had dedicated his life to responding to societal issues from anti-nuclear advocacy to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this global appeal for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, inviting cultural workers to oppose the continuing disappearance of species. “Our responsibility is to help the public recall of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Creation of Nature Remembrance

And so the environmental art day was born, a day when creatives nationwide created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who supported Metzger in his later life, notes his drive for action. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – we must act now. We shouldn’t hold back for funding or for anyone to approve this. Take action immediately.”

Ten Years On

After ten years, Remember Nature may not have triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but organizers feel its impact can still be felt in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how makers handle the environmental impact of their practices. That’s why she is reviving it to mark its decade milestone. Included in the 18 lead artists involved this time are Cornelia Parker and Anya Gallaccio. They have all designed posters, made video appeals, and created artworks set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

When speaking to one participant, she is on site in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. As she explains, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (calculating the planting intervals), biology (studying the genetic makeup), and history (tracing the journeys of how distinct varieties came to the UK).

A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces red juice

“Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice. Every one carries histories attached. The decio apple was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and struck the scientist’s head.”

She hoped 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 get at a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see what they’re called and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Cultural Projects Nationwide

At the capital, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will include attendees looking through a major gallery on a journey to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in recent years. Each glacier will be drawn on the exhibition spaces using special pens. Whenever one is found, a alert will occur and a performance will be conducted to commemorate that individual formation.

At the same time, up in a northern town, Maddi Nicholson will be presenting a free exhibition about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a community dinner, prepared with regional food. In another city, an artist is streaming her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers begin a project to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to decorate Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Kids’ art are compelling because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can inspire a sense of responsibility from each person. Children are innocent. They have fears about the future. But it isn’t meant to be about worry – it should be about positivity and us ensuring that they see a better world.”

Memorials and Memory

Paul Harfleet’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves drawing birds and then dressing up as them – and for Remember Nature day he is aiming to address an iconic figure. He is also conducting a itinerant journey 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 three incidents of discrimination on a particular day. In response, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the location of every incident and document it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences shared by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems birds consume them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

The artist selected the flower not just for the clear connection – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The plan on the event day is to plant pansies at fresh spots and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while discussing with those on the walking tour about the events and his personal experiences. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

Harfleet hopes his work – and