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Back in 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his final important works. Known for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had spent a lifetime to responding to human struggles from nuclear disarmament to plant-based living. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a international event to remember nature.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your engagement in this international summons for a day of action to reflect on the environment on the fourth of November, 2015,” he announced, inviting cultural workers to oppose the ongoing loss of species. “Our task is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so art will enter domains that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Creation of Environmental Reflection

In this way the environmental art day was born, a day when artists across the country produced pieces to the ongoing environmental crisis. Jo Joelson, who supported Metzger in his final years, remembers his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a profound sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – let’s not mess around. Let’s not wait for financial support or for anyone to authorize this. Take action immediately.”

A Decade Later

A decade on, the project may not have sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but organizers feel its legacy can still be felt in campaigns like cultural advocacy groups and environmental protests, as well as in how creatives consider the environmental impact of their methods. For this purpose she is relaunching it to mark its 10-year anniversary. Included in the key participants taking part currently are Cornelia Parker and prominent artists. They have all created visual art, made video appeals, and created artworks set to be presented on 4 November 2025.

Planting Hope

In conversation with Anya Gallaccio, she is on site in the countryside, cultivating apple trees that will grow to form a spiral-shaped orchard. Working with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and half educational workshop. She describes, the planning and planting sessions have already included learning about maths (calculating the planting intervals), science (studying the apple’s DNA), and geography (mapping the stories of how distinct varieties came to the UK).

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

“Several the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that ‘bleeds’ crimson liquid. Each has stories behind them. The ancient variety was introduced by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that descended from a tree and struck the scientist’s head.”

The artist aimed the children to be more actively aware of the environment and the control we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was urging them, when they go shopping, to read the label and see what they’re called and their origin. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Cultural Projects Across the Country

In London, a participant’s Book of Loss will involve participants looking through an art institution on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been vanished in the past decade. Each glacier will be illustrated on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. Each discovery, a chime will sound and a performance will be conducted to commemorate that specific ice mass.

At the same time, up in Barrow-in-Furness, an artist will be presenting a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as organizing a community dinner, made using regional food. Over in Newcastle, Uta Kögelsberger is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which community vocalists undertake a task to sing plants back to health in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, a featured creator will be working with schoolchildren – on the day itself she is hoping to fill a cultural venue in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their hopes and fears for the future. “Kids’ art are compelling because they’re not as restricted as adults’,” she says in her recorded message. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and it may stimulate a awareness of obligation from us all. Children are innocent. They have anxieties about what’s next. But this shouldn’t be about anxiety – it should be about optimism and us ensuring that they get a future.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Another artist’s work also connects with children. Drawing on past experience, his Birds Can Fly involves illustrating avians and then embodying them – and for Remember Nature day he is aiming to address an iconic figure. He is also conducting a walking tour of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. That ongoing series commenced following he faced several events of homophobic abuse on a particular day. In response, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the spot where it happened and document it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences 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 clear connection – 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 terrible thing,” he says.

The intention on 4 November 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 itinerant journey about the occurrences and his recollections. “We’ve seen quite a few following earlier installations,” he says with regret.

Advancing Positively

Harfleet hopes his work – and