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During 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger launched one of his ultimate major projects. Known for introducing art that erases itself, Metzger had spent a lifetime to responding to human struggles from nuclear disarmament to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he made a plea for a global day of action to remember nature.

“I call upon you for your engagement in this international summons for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he announced, urging cultural workers to resist the steady eradication of flora and fauna. “Our task is to remind people of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into territories that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

In this way the environmental art day was established, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the escalating planetary emergency. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his last days, notes his feeling of immediacy. “There was a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. We shouldn’t hold back for sponsorship or for anyone to green light this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

A decade on, the project hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be felt in initiatives like artist-led declarations and environmental protests, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their methods. For this purpose she is restaging it to commemorate its decade milestone. Part of the key participants taking part currently are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. All participants have produced imagery, shared messages, and produced installations set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Sowing Change

Interviewing one participant, she is working outdoors in the countryside, assisting with planting apple trees that will create a circular grove. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and somewhat instructive. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already included learning about maths (spacing the gaps in the orchard), science (studying the hereditary traits), and history (mapping the stories of how various cultivars came to the UK).

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

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that releases red juice. Every one carries background narratives. The historical cultivar was imported by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that dropped off a tree and struck the scientist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more actively aware of the environment and the power we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was urging them, on their next shopping trip, to read the label and see what they’re called and the source. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Nationwide

Within the city, Youngsook Choi’s Book of Loss will include attendees searching Tate Modern on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been vanished in modern times. Each glacier will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using invisible ink. When located, a alert will occur and a recitation will be conducted to remember that specific ice mass.

At the same time, up in another location, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a free exhibition about our separation from nature, as well as hosting a shared meal, cooked from sustainable ingredients. Further north, a participant is streaming her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers embark on a mission to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Following this approach, a featured creator will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is hoping to fill a cultural venue in children’s artwork that document their hopes and fears for the future. “Kids’ art are compelling 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 perhaps it can stimulate a awareness of obligation from us all. Kids are unbiased. They have fears about the future. But it isn’t meant to be about worry – it should be about optimism and making sure that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Paul Harfleet’s work also resonates for children. Drawing on past experience, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then performing as birds – and for the initiative he is intending to represent a local symbol. He is also staging a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. The project began when he experienced multiple occurrences of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since spiralled to include incidents experienced by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Apparently pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the flower 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 negative trait,” he says.

The intention on 4 November is to plant pansies at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has honored before, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the occurrences and his personal experiences. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Advancing Positively

Harfleet hopes his work – and