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In 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his final major projects. Famed for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had spent a lifetime to addressing global challenges from peace activism to ethical eating. Through a short video message, he made a plea for a global day of action to honor the environment.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this international summons for a day of action to remember nature on the fourth of November, 2015,” he announced, urging artists and creatives to resist the ongoing loss of living beings. “Our responsibility is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Creation of Nature Remembrance

In this way the environmental art day came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who worked closely with Metzger in his last days, notes his drive for action. “There was a great sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I just said – we must act now. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to authorize this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

Ten years later, Remember Nature hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its legacy can still be observed in movements like Culture Declares and environmental protests, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their methods. That’s why she is reviving it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Included in the key participants taking part currently are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. They have all created visual art, recorded calls to action, and created artworks set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

When speaking to one participant, she is on site in the countryside, cultivating apple trees that will create a coiled garden. Working with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and somewhat instructive. She describes, the design and cultivation sessions have already involved learning about measurements (measuring out the distances between trees), biology (discussing the apple’s DNA), and geography (researching the stories of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that releases crimson liquid

“Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. Every one carries stories behind them. The decio apple was introduced by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that dropped off a tree and hit the physicist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more actively aware of the environment and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was prompting them, on their next shopping trip, to look on the bag and see what they’re called and their origin. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Artistic Responses Throughout Britain

At the capital, one artist’s project on disappearance will include attendees exploring a major gallery on a mission to find the ice masses that have been disappeared in recent years. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the museum surfaces using special pens. Whenever one is found, a bell will ring and a performance will be conducted to honor that particular glacier.

Meanwhile, up in Barrow-in-Furness, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a free exhibition about our separation from nature, as well as hosting a communal feast, prepared with sustainable ingredients. Further north, an artist is broadcasting her environmental performance, in which regional performers undertake a task to use music to heal flora in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, a featured creator will be engaging schoolchildren – on the actual event she is aiming to fill Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in youth creations that express their aspirations and concerns for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are compelling because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her call to action video. “What children have to offer to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will provoke a feeling of duty from everyone. Youth is pure. They have fears about the future. But let’s not make it about worry – it should be about positivity and our responsibility that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his feathered initiative involves drawing birds and then embodying them – and for the initiative he is planning to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. That ongoing series commenced following he experienced multiple occurrences of prejudice on a one occasion. In response, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the location of every incident and document it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences shared by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies 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 pansy not just for the direct association – it has long been a slur – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The plan on 4 November is to sow flowers at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the events and his recollections. “I’ve recorded quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Advancing Positively

The artist wishes his work – and