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During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate significant endeavors. Recognized for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting global challenges from nuclear disarmament to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a international event to honor the environment.

“This is my appeal for your engagement in this global appeal for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, encouraging cultural workers to stand against the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “Our responsibility is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

Thus the environmental art day was born, a day when artists across the country created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his final years, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – we must act now. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to approve this. Take action immediately.”

Ten Years On

Ten years later, the project hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but organizers feel its impact can still be seen in movements like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their methods. For this purpose she is restaging it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Included in the 18 lead artists participating now are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. They have all created visual art, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

When speaking to the artist, she is working outdoors in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and somewhat instructive. According to her, the planning and planting sessions have already involved learning about maths (measuring out the planting intervals), science (studying the genetic makeup), and origins (researching the stories of how different apples 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 releases scarcolored sap

“A lot of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that produces red juice. Each has stories behind them. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that dropped off a tree and hit Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more actively aware of nature and the control we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was urging them, when they go shopping, to check the packaging and see what they’re called and their origin. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Cultural Projects Throughout Britain

In London, one artist’s Book of Loss will engage visitors looking through Tate Modern on a quest to find the ice masses that have been vanished in modern times. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the museum surfaces using special pens. Whenever one is found, a alert will occur and a performance will be conducted to honor that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, an artist will be hosting a free exhibition about our disconnection from the land, as well as holding a community dinner, made using sustainable ingredients. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers begin a project to perform for vegetation in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is aiming to decorate a cultural venue in youth creations that capture their aspirations and concerns for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are powerful because they’re not as inhibited as mature perspectives,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will stimulate a sense of responsibility from each person. Children are innocent. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about worry – it should be about positivity and making sure that they get a future.”

Memorials and Memory

Paul Harfleet’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is intending to address a local symbol. He is also conducting a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the last two decades. This endeavor commenced following he experienced several events of homophobic abuse on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since spiralled to include incidents shared by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly birds consume them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

He picked the flower not just for the clear connection – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The intention on 4 November is to place blooms at additional sites and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the incidents and his recollections. “I’ve recorded quite a few following earlier installations,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

Harfleet hopes his work – and