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In 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his last important works. Known for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting societal issues from anti-nuclear advocacy to vegetarianism. Via a concise video message, he issued a call for a international event 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 stated, encouraging makers and thinkers to oppose the ongoing loss of living beings. “Our task is to make audiences aware of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into territories that are inherently creative.”

The Creation of Remember Nature

And so the environmental art day was born, a day when creatives nationwide produced pieces to the ongoing environmental crisis. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his final years, notes his feeling of immediacy. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I just said – let’s not mess around. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

A decade on, the project did not triggered the broad uprising across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but organizers feel its legacy can still be felt in initiatives like artist-led declarations 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 10-year anniversary. Among the key participants taking part currently are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. They have all produced imagery, made video appeals, and developed pieces set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

Interviewing the artist, she is working outdoors in a rural area, cultivating apple trees that will develop into a circular grove. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and part learning experience. She describes, the design and cultivation sessions have already involved learning about maths (calculating the planting intervals), science (studying the hereditary traits), and history (researching the journeys of how different apples arrived in Britain).

Several the apples were picked 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 picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that releases crimson liquid. Every one carries background narratives. The decio apple was imported by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that descended from a tree and landed on Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more actively aware of the environment and the power we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was prompting them, on their next shopping trip, to read the label and see what they’re called and the source. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Across the Country

Within the city, a participant’s work about extinction will involve participants searching Tate Modern on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been lost in modern times. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using special pens. When located, a alert will occur and a recitation will be conducted to remember that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in a northern town, a creative will be presenting a public show about our separation from nature, as well as hosting a community dinner, prepared with sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, an artist is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which local singers undertake a task to sing plants back to health in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Following this approach, Cornelia Parker will be engaging schoolchildren – on the actual event she is planning to fill a cultural venue in youth creations that express their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Kids’ art are impactful because they’re not as inhibited as adults’,” she says in her public appeal. “Young people’s input to the world is something truly special and it may inspire a feeling of duty from everyone. Youth is pure. They have fears about the future. But let’s not make it about anxiety – it should be about positivity and our responsibility that they see a better world.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his Birds Can Fly involves sketching winged creatures and then dressing up as them – and for the initiative he is intending to represent a local symbol. He is also conducting a itinerant journey of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. That ongoing series began when he endured several events of discrimination on a particular day. To counter this, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the site of each occurrence and record it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Apparently wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

The artist selected the flower not just for the obvious reason – 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 contemplative, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The project on 4 November is to place blooms at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while discussing with those on the guided walk about the events and his personal experiences. “I’ve recorded quite a few following earlier installations,” he says mournfully.

Progressing Optimistically

Harfleet hopes his work – and