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In 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger launched one of his final significant endeavors. Recognized for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to responding to societal issues from nuclear disarmament to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he issued a call for a international event to celebrate the natural world.

“This is my appeal for your engagement in this global appeal for a day of action to commemorate our planet on the fourth of November, 2015,” he announced, urging makers and thinkers to stand against the continuing disappearance of living beings. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are inherently creative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

In this way the environmental art day was born, a day when creatives nationwide developed works to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who supported Metzger in his final years, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “He had a great sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I just said – we must act now. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to authorize this. Take action immediately.”

After Ten Years

After ten years, the initiative may not have sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its influence can still be seen in initiatives like Culture Declares and climate activism networks, as well as in how makers handle the sustainability of their work. That’s why she is relaunching it to commemorate its decade milestone. Part of the 18 lead artists participating now are Cornelia Parker and Anya Gallaccio. All participants have designed posters, shared messages, and created artworks set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

In conversation with one participant, she is on site in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will create a coiled garden. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and part learning experience. According to her, the planning and planting sessions have already incorporated learning about measurements (measuring out the planting intervals), genetics (exploring the genetic makeup), and origins (tracing the journeys of how different apples arrived in Britain).

Many 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 funny names such as the Duck’s Bill,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries background narratives. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that dropped off a tree and landed on the physicist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more consciously engaged of the environment and the influence we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was urging them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see the variety and the source. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Cultural Projects Nationwide

In London, one artist’s work about extinction will engage visitors searching a major gallery on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been lost in the past decade. All formations will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using special pens. Each discovery, a bell will ring and a recitation will be performed to remember that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a public show about our separation from nature, as well as organizing a communal feast, prepared with regional food. Further north, a participant is streaming her musical project, in which local singers begin a project to sing plants back to health in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Following this approach, a featured creator will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is aiming to cover an art space in youth creations that capture their dreams and worries for the future. “Youthful expressions are powerful because they’re not as inhibited as mature perspectives,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something quite unique and hopefully it will stimulate a awareness of obligation from everyone. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about anxiety – it should be about hope and making sure that they see a better world.”

Tributes and Thoughts

A participant’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for the initiative he is planning to tackle a local symbol. He is also conducting a guided walk of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. That ongoing series started after he faced multiple occurrences of prejudice on a particular day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since spiralled to include incidents shared by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a derogatory label – 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 bad quality,” he says.

The plan on Remember Nature day is to plant pansies at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the incidents and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few following earlier installations,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

He desires his work – and