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Back in 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger launched one of his final major projects. Famed for creating art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to human struggles from peace activism to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he issued a call for a international event to honor the environment.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this global appeal for a day of action to commemorate our planet on the fourth of November, 2015,” he declared, inviting cultural workers to stand against the steady eradication of living beings. “Our task is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

And so the environmental art day came into being, a day when creatives nationwide created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. One of the curators, who cared for Metzger in his later life, remembers his drive for action. “He had a strong sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “My advice was – we must act now. Let’s not wait for funding or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

Ten Years On

A decade on, Remember Nature hasn’t quite triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its legacy can still be observed in movements like Culture Declares and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the eco-friendliness of their practices. This is the reason she is restaging it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Included in the key participants participating now are A Man Called Adam and other notable figures. All participants have created visual art, made video appeals, and created artworks set to be revealed on 4 November 2025.

Sowing Change

When speaking to Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will create a coiled garden. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. She describes, the planning and planting sessions have already involved learning about maths (spacing the planting intervals), science (studying the hereditary traits), and geography (tracing the backgrounds of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that produces crimson liquid

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that produces crimson liquid. They all have histories attached. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that dropped off a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was urging them, next time they were out, to check the packaging and see the variety and the source. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Nationwide

In London, Youngsook Choi’s Book of Loss will engage visitors exploring a major gallery on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been vanished in the past decade. All formations will be illustrated on the exhibition spaces using ultraviolet markers. Each discovery, a alert will occur and a reading will be held to remember that specific ice mass.

Meanwhile, up in Barrow-in-Furness, a creative will be hosting a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as holding a communal feast, prepared with regional food. Over in Newcastle, a participant is sharing her environmental performance, in which regional performers embark on a mission to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to fill a cultural venue in kids’ letters and drawings that express their hopes and fears for the future. “Children’s words and images 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 hopefully it will provoke a feeling of duty from us all. Youth is pure. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about fear – it should be about hope and making sure that they see a better world.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’s work also appeals to children. Drawing on past experience, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then performing as birds – and for the event he is aiming to represent Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also organizing a guided walk of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his long-term work over the past twenty years. This endeavor began when he experienced multiple occurrences of prejudice on a particular day. In response, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since spiralled to incorporate experiences shared 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 short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a slur – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The project on the event day is to plant pansies at fresh spots and also replant flowers in places he has previously memorialised, all the while discussing with those on the guided walk about the events and his recollections. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says with regret.

Advancing Positively

He desires his work – and