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Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate significant endeavors. Known for introducing art that erases itself, Metzger had dedicated his life to confronting global challenges from peace activism to vegetarianism. In a brief video message, he made a plea for a global day of action to honor the environment.

“I call upon you for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on November 4th, 2015,” he announced, inviting makers and thinkers to oppose the continuing disappearance of species. “Our task is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into territories that are naturally imaginative.”

The Birth of Remember Nature

And so the environmental art day came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his last days, notes his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – we must act now. Let’s not wait for sponsorship or for anyone to authorize this. Let’s just do it.”

After Ten Years

Ten years later, the project hasn’t quite sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its impact 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. That’s why she is restaging it to mark its ten-year mark. Among the key participants involved this time are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. All participants have produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing one participant, she is working outdoors in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and half educational workshop. She describes, the planning and planting sessions have already incorporated learning about measurements (spacing the planting intervals), genetics (exploring the apple’s DNA), and geography (mapping the journeys of how different apples arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that produces scarcolored sap

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries histories attached. The ancient variety was introduced by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that descended from a tree and struck the scientist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, on their next shopping trip, to look on the bag and see what they’re called and where they were grown. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

Within the city, a participant’s work about extinction will include attendees searching Tate Modern on a quest to find the frozen formations that have been lost in the past decade. All formations will be depicted on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. Whenever one is found, a bell will ring and a reading will be performed to commemorate that individual formation.

Elsewhere, up in another location, a creative will be hosting a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a communal feast, made using regional food. In another city, Uta Kögelsberger is sharing her musical project, in which local singers begin a project to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be working with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is hoping to decorate Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in children’s artwork that express their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Kids’ art are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as grown-ups’,” she says in her public appeal. “The contributions of youth to the world is something truly special and it may stimulate a awareness of obligation from each person. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But it isn’t meant to be about worry – it should be about optimism and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then embodying them – and for the event he is planning to represent an iconic figure. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his ongoing series over the past twenty years. This endeavor began when he faced several events of discrimination on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since spiralled to incorporate experiences shared by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Apparently pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the clear connection – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The project on Remember Nature day is to plant pansies at additional sites and also replant flowers in places he has previously memorialised, all the while discussing with those on the walking tour about the events and his recollections. “I’ve recorded quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Moving Forward with Hope

Harfleet hopes his work – and