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Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger launched one of his ultimate major projects. Known for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting global challenges from anti-nuclear advocacy to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he requested support for a worldwide initiative to remember nature.

“I call upon you for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to commemorate our planet on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, urging cultural workers to stand against the continuing disappearance of living beings. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Nature Remembrance

In this way the environmental art day was born, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the escalating planetary emergency. An organizer, who supported Metzger in his last days, notes his sense of urgency. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – we must act now. We shouldn’t hold back for financial support or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

Ten Years On

Ten years later, the initiative hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its influence can still be seen in initiatives like artist-led declarations and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the sustainability of their work. This is the reason she is reviving it to mark its ten-year mark. Part of the featured creators involved this time are Yu-Chen Wang and other notable figures. Each has created visual art, shared messages, and produced installations set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Sowing Change

When speaking to one participant, she is on site in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a coiled garden. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and half educational workshop. As she explains, the planning and planting sessions have already involved learning about mathematics (measuring out the gaps in the orchard), science (exploring the hereditary traits), and history (researching the journeys of how different apples came to the UK).

A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that produces red juice

“Several the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. They all have stories behind them. The ancient variety was introduced by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more actively aware of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was urging them, on their next shopping trip, to check the packaging and see their names and their origin. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

At the capital, a participant’s Book of Loss will include attendees looking through a major gallery on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been lost in recent years. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the museum surfaces using ultraviolet markers. Each discovery, a chime will sound and a recitation will be conducted to honor that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in Barrow-in-Furness, an artist will be hosting a public show about our separation from nature, as well as holding a shared meal, prepared with regional food. Further north, a participant is streaming her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which local singers embark on a mission to use music to heal flora in a local park.

Young Insights

Similar to other artists, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to decorate an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that document their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are impactful because they’re not as restricted as adults’,” she says in her public appeal. “The contributions of youth to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will stimulate a awareness of obligation from us all. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about hope and making sure that they get a future.”

Memorials and Memory

Another artist’s work also resonates for children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then performing as birds – and for Remember Nature day he is aiming to represent 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 recent decades. This endeavor started after he endured several events of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the spot where it happened and photograph it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences shared by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the flower not just for the direct association – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The project on 4 November is to place blooms at additional sites and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while conversing with those on the itinerant journey about the events and his personal experiences. “We’ve seen quite a few following earlier installations,” he says sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

Harfleet hopes his work – and