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Back in 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger launched one of his ultimate significant endeavors. Famed for introducing self-destructive creations, Metzger had spent a lifetime to addressing global challenges from peace activism to plant-based living. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a worldwide initiative to honor the environment.

“I call upon you for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on 4 November 2015,” he stated, urging artists and creatives to stand against the continuing disappearance of flora and fauna. “The mission is to help the public recall of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into realms that are inherently creative.”

The Inception of Environmental Reflection

In this way the environmental art day came into being, a day when creatives nationwide created responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his later life, recalls his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I just said – we must act now. Let’s not wait for funding or for anyone to approve this. We should proceed.”

Ten Years On

After ten years, the project may not have incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its impact can still be felt in movements like Culture Declares and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the environmental impact of their work. That’s why she is reviving it to mark its decade milestone. Included in the 18 lead artists involved this time are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. They have all created visual art, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

In conversation with one participant, she is out in a field in Kent, cultivating apple trees that will create a circular grove. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and somewhat instructive. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already involved learning about mathematics (spacing the distances between trees), genetics (discussing the apple’s DNA), and geography (researching the stories of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were selected because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“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 releases red juice. Each has background narratives. The ancient variety was brought over by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that fell from a tree and hit Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more actively aware of nature and the control we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was prompting them, on their next shopping trip, to check the packaging and see the variety and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Across the Country

Within the city, one artist’s Book of Loss will include attendees searching Tate Modern on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been vanished in modern times. All formations will be depicted on the museum surfaces using ultraviolet markers. Whenever one is found, a bell will ring and a reading will be held to commemorate that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in a northern town, an artist will be presenting a open display about our separation from nature, as well as holding a shared meal, prepared with regional food. In another city, an artist is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which community vocalists embark on a mission to use music to heal flora in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to cover an art space in children’s artwork that capture their aspirations and concerns for the tomorrow. “Youthful expressions are compelling because they’re not as restricted as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something truly special and perhaps it can inspire a feeling of duty from everyone. Youth is pure. They have fears about the future. But it isn’t meant to be about fear – it should be about positivity and making sure that they see a better world.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’s work also appeals to children. As a former drag queen, his feathered initiative involves illustrating avians and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is planning to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also staging a itinerant journey of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. The project started after he endured several events of homophobic abuse on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the site of each occurrence and record it – the project has since grown to include incidents reported by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Apparently birds consume them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the direct association – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – 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 negative trait,” he says.

The project on the event day is to plant pansies at new locations and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while talking to those on the guided walk about the occurrences and his personal experiences. “We’ve seen quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Advancing Positively

The artist wishes his work – and