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During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate major projects. Recognized for introducing art that erases itself, Metzger had dedicated his life to responding to societal issues from anti-nuclear advocacy to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he made a plea for a international event to honor the environment.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your participation in this international summons for a day of action to commemorate our planet on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, encouraging cultural workers to resist the steady eradication of species. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so art will enter domains that are inherently creative.”

The Birth of Remember Nature

Thus the environmental art day came into being, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the escalating planetary emergency. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his last days, recalls his sense of urgency. “I sensed a great sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – don’t delay. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to authorize this. Take action immediately.”

After Ten Years

After ten years, the project did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but supporters think its impact can still be felt in movements like Culture Declares and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the environmental impact of their methods. For this purpose she is relaunching it to commemorate its ten-year mark. Among the 18 lead artists taking part currently are A Man Called Adam and other notable figures. They have all produced imagery, shared messages, and created artworks set to be presented on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in a rural area, assisting with planting apple trees that will create a circular grove. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. She describes, the preparation and sowing sessions have already included learning about measurements (measuring out the distances between trees), science (studying the genetic makeup), and geography (researching the journeys of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that releases crimson liquid

“Several the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill,” she explains. “We have one apple that produces red juice. Each has histories attached. The decio apple was introduced by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and landed on the physicist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the control we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was prompting them, when they go shopping, to read the label and see their names and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Throughout Britain

At the capital, Youngsook Choi’s Book of Loss will engage visitors looking through Tate Modern on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been lost in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the museum surfaces using ultraviolet markers. Each discovery, a chime will sound and a reading will be conducted to remember that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in another location, Maddi Nicholson will be hosting a public show about our disconnection from the land, as well as organizing a community dinner, cooked from regional food. Further north, Uta Kögelsberger is broadcasting her environmental performance, in which community vocalists embark on a mission to use music to heal flora in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Like Gallaccio, Cornelia Parker will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is hoping to fill a cultural venue in kids’ letters and drawings that document their aspirations and concerns for the tomorrow. “Kids’ art are compelling because they’re not as trammelled as grown-ups’,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will inspire a sense of responsibility from each person. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But it isn’t meant to be about anxiety – it should be about positivity and making sure that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his feathered initiative involves drawing birds and then dressing up as them – and for the event he is aiming to represent a local symbol. He is also staging a walking tour of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his long-term work over the past twenty years. The project started after he experienced multiple occurrences of discrimination on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the location of every incident and photograph it – the project has since spiralled to cover events reported by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Apparently birds consume them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

Harfleet chose the pansy not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a slur – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The project on 4 November is to plant pansies at additional sites 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. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

Harfleet hopes his work – and