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Back in 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate important works. Recognized for pioneering auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting global challenges from nuclear disarmament to plant-based living. Through a short video message, he made a plea for a global day of action to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this global appeal for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, inviting makers and thinkers to oppose the steady eradication of species. “Our task is to make audiences aware of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into domains that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Birth of Remember Nature

In this way the environmental art day was born, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain produced pieces to the ongoing environmental crisis. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his later life, notes his drive for action. “There was a strong sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – let’s not mess around. No need to pause for financial support or for anyone to green light this. Take action immediately.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, Remember Nature did not sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but Joelson believes its impact can still be felt in movements like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how artists approach the environmental impact of their work. That’s why she is reviving it to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Among the 18 lead artists involved this time are Cornelia Parker and prominent artists. All participants have created visual art, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be revealed on 4 November 2025.

Sowing Change

When speaking to Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a spiral-shaped orchard. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and part learning experience. She describes, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about mathematics (measuring out the planting intervals), science (exploring the apple’s DNA), and origins (researching the stories of how distinct varieties came to the UK).

A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that produces scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. Each has histories attached. The decio apple was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the power we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, next time they were out, to check the packaging and see their names and their origin. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Across the Country

Within the city, Youngsook Choi’s work about extinction will engage visitors exploring an art institution on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been vanished in recent years. Each glacier will be depicted on the museum surfaces using special pens. Each discovery, a bell will ring and a performance will be held to honor that particular glacier.

Meanwhile, up in another location, Maddi Nicholson will be presenting a free exhibition about our disconnection from the land, as well as hosting a community dinner, made using sustainable ingredients. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is streaming her musical project, in which community vocalists begin a project to perform for vegetation in a local park.

Youth Perspectives

Following this approach, Cornelia Parker will be working with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to decorate Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that express their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are compelling because they’re not as restricted as grown-ups’,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and hopefully it will inspire a awareness of obligation from us all. Youth is pure. They have fears about the future. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about hope and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Paul Harfleet’s work also resonates for children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves drawing birds and then embodying them – and for the initiative he is intending to represent Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also conducting a itinerant journey of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. The project commenced following he experienced multiple occurrences of discrimination on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “It seems pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

Harfleet chose the flower 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. “People connected it with a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The intention on Remember Nature day is to place blooms at additional sites and also renew the tributes in places he has previously memorialised, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the incidents and his recollections. “There’s been quite a few since I last planted,” he says sadly.

Progressing Optimistically

Harfleet hopes his work – and