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Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate important works. Famed for creating auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting global challenges from anti-nuclear advocacy to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he requested support for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your participation in this global appeal for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, inviting cultural workers to resist the continuing disappearance of flora and fauna. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into territories that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

Thus the environmental art day was established, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the unfolding climate catastrophe. An organizer, who supported Metzger in his last days, notes his sense of urgency. “There was a profound sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. Let’s not wait for funding or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

After Ten Years

After ten years, the project did not triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its influence can still be seen in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and environmental protests, as well as in how artists approach the eco-friendliness of their methods. This is the reason she is reviving it to mark its ten-year mark. Among the key participants taking part currently are Cornelia Parker and Anya Gallaccio. All participants have created visual art, shared messages, and developed pieces set to be revealed on 4 November 2025.

Sowing Change

When speaking to the artist, she is on site in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. As she explains, the preparation and sowing sessions have already included learning about measurements (calculating the planting intervals), science (discussing the genetic makeup), and history (researching the backgrounds of how various cultivars came to the UK).

Several the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarlet-colored sap. They all have stories behind them. The ancient variety was introduced by the Romans. The Kentish variety 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 power we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was urging them, on their next shopping trip, to check the packaging and see what they’re called and their origin. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Cultural Projects Across the Country

Within the city, a participant’s project on disappearance will include attendees looking through an art institution on a mission to find the ice masses that have been disappeared in modern times. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using special pens. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a performance will be performed to remember that particular glacier.

Meanwhile, up in Barrow-in-Furness, a creative will be putting on a free exhibition about our separation from nature, as well as holding a communal feast, made using sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, a participant is broadcasting her environmental performance, in which regional performers embark on a mission to sing plants back to health in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, a featured creator will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is hoping to decorate an art space in children’s artwork that capture their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Kids’ art are impactful because they’re not as trammelled as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “Young people’s input to the world is something quite unique and it may 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 fear – it should be about positivity and us ensuring that they get a future.”

Memorials and Memory

Paul Harfleet’s work also appeals to children. Drawing on past experience, his avian project involves drawing birds and then performing as birds – and for Remember Nature day he is aiming to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also organizing a itinerant journey of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his long-term work over the past twenty years. The project commenced following he experienced multiple occurrences of prejudice on a one occasion. In response, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Apparently birds consume them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the clear connection – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The plan on Remember Nature day is to place blooms at fresh spots and also renew the tributes in places he has previously memorialised, all the while conversing with those on the walking tour about the occurrences and his memories of them. “There’s been quite a few following earlier installations,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and