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Back in 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his ultimate significant endeavors. Recognized for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had spent a lifetime to responding to human struggles from peace activism to plant-based living. In a brief video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“This is my appeal for your participation in this global appeal for a day of action to reflect on the environment on the fourth of November, 2015,” he announced, inviting artists and creatives to oppose the steady eradication of living beings. “Our responsibility is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore realms that are naturally imaginative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

In this way the environmental art day came into being, a day when creatives nationwide developed works to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who worked closely with Metzger in his last days, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “There was a strong sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “My advice was – don’t delay. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

After ten years, the project may not have triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its influence can still be felt 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 mark its ten-year mark. Part of the 18 lead artists involved this time are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. All participants have designed posters, made video appeals, and produced installations set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is out in a field in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a coiled garden. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and half educational workshop. She describes, the preparation and sowing sessions have already incorporated learning about measurements (measuring out the distances between trees), biology (studying the genetic makeup), and history (researching the backgrounds of how distinct varieties were introduced to England).

Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“Several the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that releases crimson liquid. Every one carries histories attached. The ancient variety was introduced by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and struck the physicist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the environment and the influence we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was urging them, when they go shopping, to check the packaging and see the variety and the source. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Cultural Projects Throughout Britain

Within the city, one artist’s Book of Loss will engage visitors looking through a major gallery on a mission to find the ice masses that have been lost in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using ultraviolet markers. Whenever one is found, a chime will sound and a recitation will be performed to commemorate that specific ice mass.

Meanwhile, up in Barrow-in-Furness, a creative will be hosting a public show about our separation from nature, as well as hosting a shared meal, prepared with regional food. Over in Newcastle, Uta Kögelsberger is sharing her musical project, in which community vocalists begin a project to perform for vegetation in a local park.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to fill an art space in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their hopes and fears for the years ahead. “Children’s words and images are impactful because they’re not as restricted as grown-ups’,” she says in her call to action video. “What children have to offer to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can stimulate a sense of responsibility from each person. Youth is pure. They have anxieties about what’s next. But let’s not make it about worry – it should be about positivity and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

Paul Harfleet’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves drawing birds and then embodying them – and for the event he is planning to represent an iconic figure. He is also conducting a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his ongoing series over the past twenty years. This endeavor began when he endured three incidents of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. To counter this, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the spot where it happened and photograph it – the project has since spiralled to cover events reported by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly pigeons like to eat 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 etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It became associated with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The plan on 4 November is to place blooms at new locations and also renew the tributes in places he has honored before, all the while conversing with those on the itinerant journey about the occurrences and his personal experiences. “There’s been quite a few following earlier installations,” he says mournfully.

Moving Forward with Hope

The artist wishes his work – and