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In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his final significant endeavors. Known for pioneering self-destructive creations, Metzger had spent a lifetime to addressing human struggles from peace activism to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a international event to remember nature.

“I call upon you for your involvement in this global appeal for a day of action to reflect on the environment on the fourth of November, 2015,” he announced, urging cultural workers to stand against the continuing disappearance of flora and fauna. “Our responsibility is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore domains that are naturally imaginative.”

The Inception of Remember Nature

In this way the environmental art day came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain developed works to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his last days, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “There was a great sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – let’s not mess around. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

After ten years, the project did not sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its influence can still be felt in campaigns like artist-led declarations and climate activism networks, as well as in how artists approach the environmental impact of their work. This is the reason she is restaging it to mark its 10-year anniversary. Among the key participants involved this time are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. All participants have produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be revealed on 4 November 2025.

Planting Hope

Interviewing one participant, she is working outdoors in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will develop into a circular grove. Working with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and part learning experience. According to her, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (measuring out the planting intervals), science (studying the hereditary traits), and geography (tracing the journeys of how various cultivars came to the UK).

A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice

“Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries background narratives. The ancient variety was introduced by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that descended from a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more thoughtfully connected of nature and the control we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was urging them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see what they’re called and where they were grown. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Artistic Responses Throughout Britain

In London, one artist’s project on disappearance will involve participants looking through an art institution on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been vanished in modern times. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the museum surfaces using ultraviolet markers. Whenever one is found, a alert will occur and a performance will be conducted to commemorate that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in another location, a creative will be hosting a open display about our separation from nature, as well as organizing a shared meal, cooked from organic, local produce. Over in Newcastle, a participant is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which local singers undertake a task to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Following this approach, a featured creator will be engaging schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to fill a cultural venue in kids’ letters and drawings that document their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Youthful expressions are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as grown-ups’,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can inspire a feeling of duty from us all. Children are innocent. They have anxieties about what’s next. But it isn’t meant to be about anxiety – it should be about positivity and us ensuring that they see a better world.”

Memorials and Memory

Paul Harfleet’s work also connects with children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves drawing birds and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is intending to address Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. This endeavor began when he faced several events of prejudice on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and record it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences shared by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Apparently birds consume them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

He picked the pansy not just for the clear connection – it has long been a slur – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The intention on 4 November is to sow flowers at new locations and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the walking tour about the events and his recollections. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and