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Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger launched one of his final significant endeavors. Famed for creating self-destructive creations, Metzger had spent a lifetime to addressing societal issues from nuclear disarmament to vegetarianism. Via a concise video message, he requested support for a global day of action to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to remember nature on 4 November 2015,” he announced, urging makers and thinkers to resist the continuing disappearance of species. “Our task is to remind people of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore territories that are inherently creative.”

The Birth of Environmental Reflection

In this way the environmental art day was established, a day when creatives nationwide produced pieces to the unfolding climate catastrophe. Jo Joelson, who worked closely with Metzger in his later life, remembers his drive for action. “He had a strong sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – we must act now. We shouldn’t hold back for funding or for anyone to approve this. Let’s just do it.”

A Decade Later

A decade on, the project did not sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be felt in movements like cultural advocacy groups and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the eco-friendliness of their work. This is the reason she is restaging it to commemorate its decade milestone. Part of the key participants participating now are Cornelia Parker and other notable figures. All participants have created visual art, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be unveiled on 4 November 2025.

Planting Hope

Interviewing one participant, she is out in a field in Kent, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a coiled garden. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and half educational workshop. As she explains, the design and cultivation sessions have already incorporated learning about mathematics (calculating the distances between trees), biology (studying the genetic makeup), and geography (mapping the backgrounds of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).

Several the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that releases red juice

“Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got funny names such as the Duck’s Bill,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. Each has histories attached. The historical cultivar was imported by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that fell from a tree and landed on the physicist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more consciously engaged 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, on their next shopping trip, to look on the bag and see the variety and their origin. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Creative Initiatives Throughout Britain

Within the city, one artist’s Book of Loss will include attendees exploring Tate Modern on a mission to find the seven major glaciers that have been lost in the past decade. Each glacier will be illustrated on the gallery’s windows and walls using special pens. Whenever one is found, a chime will sound and a reading will be performed to honor that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in a northern town, an artist will be hosting a public show about our separation from nature, as well as holding a community dinner, prepared with regional food. Further north, Uta Kögelsberger is broadcasting her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers begin a project to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Youth Perspectives

Similar to other artists, another participant will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is aiming to decorate an art space in children’s artwork that document their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Children’s words and images are powerful because they’re not as inhibited as mature perspectives,” she says in her recorded message. “Young people’s input to the world is something truly special and perhaps it can provoke a feeling of duty from us all. Kids are unbiased. They have fears about the future. But it isn’t meant to be about worry – it should be about hope and making sure that they get a future.”

Memorials and Memory

Paul Harfleet’s work also resonates for children. As a former drag queen, his Birds Can Fly involves illustrating avians and then performing as birds – and for the initiative he is aiming to tackle Liverpool’s famous Liver bird. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his ongoing series over the last two decades. That ongoing series began when he faced three incidents of prejudice on a one occasion. To counter this, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “Apparently wildlife enjoys 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 etymology comes from the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a bad quality,” he says.

The project on Remember Nature day is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the walking tour about the events and his recollections. “There’s been quite a few after my previous work,” he says sadly.

Advancing Positively

He desires his work – and