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In 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his ultimate important works. Recognized for creating auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to responding to societal issues from peace activism to ethical eating. Through a short video message, he made a plea for a global day of action to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your involvement in this international summons for a day of action to remember nature on November 4th, 2015,” he declared, urging artists and creatives to oppose the continuing disappearance of flora and fauna. “The mission is to make audiences aware of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into domains that are naturally imaginative.”

The Birth of Nature Remembrance

In this way the environmental art day was born, a day when artists across the country created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. Jo Joelson, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, recalls his drive for action. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I just said – don’t delay. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. We should proceed.”

Ten Years On

Ten years later, Remember Nature did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its impact can still be seen in movements like cultural advocacy groups and climate activism networks, as well as in how creatives consider the sustainability of their work. For this purpose she is relaunching it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Included in the key participants involved this time are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. They have all designed posters, shared messages, and created artworks set to be presented on November 4, 2025.

Sowing Change

Interviewing one participant, she is on site in Kent, assisting with planting apple trees that will grow to form a circular grove. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and half educational workshop. She describes, the planning and planting sessions have already involved learning about mathematics (measuring out the distances between trees), biology (exploring the genetic makeup), and geography (mapping the stories of how different apples came to the UK).

Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ red juice

“Several the apples were selected because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher,” the artist notes. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries histories attached. The ancient variety was imported by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that descended from a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more thoughtfully connected of the natural world and the control we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, when they go shopping, to check the packaging and see the variety and the source. Perhaps it indicates Kent!”

Cultural Projects Nationwide

Within the city, Youngsook Choi’s Book of Loss will include attendees searching Tate Modern on a quest to find the ice masses that have been lost in the past decade. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the exhibition spaces using invisible ink. Each discovery, a chime will sound and a recitation will be conducted to remember that particular glacier.

At the same time, up in Barrow-in-Furness, an artist will be putting on a public show about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a community dinner, prepared with organic, local produce. In another city, an artist is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which community vocalists embark on a mission to perform for vegetation in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Children’s Voices

Following this approach, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is hoping to decorate a cultural venue in youth creations that capture their aspirations and concerns for the future. “Youthful expressions are impactful because they’re not as trammelled as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “Young people’s input to the world is something truly special and it may provoke a awareness of obligation from everyone. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about fear – it should be about optimism and us ensuring that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Another artist’s work also resonates for children. Drawing on past experience, his avian project involves sketching winged creatures and then performing as birds – and for the initiative he is planning to represent an iconic figure. He is also organizing a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his long-term work over the past twenty years. The project commenced following he experienced three incidents of discrimination on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the location of every incident and document it – the project has since expanded to incorporate experiences reported by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “It seems birds consume them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

The artist selected the pansy not just for the obvious reason – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “People connected it with a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The intention on the event day is to sow flowers at new locations and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while conversing with those on the guided walk about the events and his memories of them. “I’ve recorded quite a few following earlier installations,” he says with regret.

Progressing Optimistically

The artist wishes his work – and