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During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his ultimate major projects. Known for introducing art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to confronting societal issues from nuclear disarmament to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he made a plea for a worldwide initiative to honor the environment.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your participation in this international summons for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he declared, encouraging makers and thinkers to resist the ongoing loss of species. “Our responsibility is to remind people of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so art will enter realms that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Birth of Environmental Reflection

And so the Nature Remembrance initiative came into being, a day when artists across the country created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. One of the curators, who supported Metzger in his later life, notes his feeling of immediacy. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I just said – let’s not mess around. Let’s not wait for financial support or for anyone to green light this. We should proceed.”

Ten Years On

After ten years, the initiative did not sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had envisioned, but organizers feel its influence can still be seen in movements like artist-led declarations and climate activism networks, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their work. This is the reason she is relaunching it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Among the key participants involved this time are A Man Called Adam and other notable figures. They have all produced imagery, shared messages, and developed pieces set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

In conversation with the artist, she is on site in the countryside, helping plant apple trees that will create a circular grove. Working with schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. As she explains, the preparation and sowing sessions have already included learning about mathematics (measuring out the gaps in the orchard), genetics (exploring the apple’s DNA), and history (researching the journeys of how various cultivars were introduced to England).

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

“Several the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Duck’s Bill,” she explains. “We have one apple that releases scarlet-colored sap. They all have stories behind them. The historical cultivar was imported by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that dropped off a tree and hit Isaac Newton’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more consciously engaged of the environment and the power we have over it. “For a lot of them, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, when they go shopping, to check the packaging and see the variety and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Artistic Responses Throughout Britain

In London, one artist’s Book of Loss will involve participants searching Tate Modern on a journey to find the seven major glaciers that have been disappeared in modern times. Every ice sheet will be illustrated on the gallery’s windows and walls using special pens. Whenever one is found, a bell will ring and a performance will be performed to remember that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, an artist will be putting on a free exhibition about our disconnection from the land, as well as hosting a shared meal, cooked from regional food. In another city, an artist is streaming her musical project, in which regional performers embark on a mission to use music to heal flora in a local park.

Children’s Voices

Similar to other artists, another participant will be engaging schoolchildren – on the day itself she is planning to decorate Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in children’s artwork that capture their dreams and worries for the future. “Youthful expressions are compelling because they’re not as trammelled as mature perspectives,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something quite unique and it may provoke a sense of responsibility from everyone. Youth is pure. They have concerns for tomorrow. But let’s not make it about worry – it should be about hope and making sure 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 drawing birds and then performing as birds – and for the event he is planning to represent a local symbol. He is also staging a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. That ongoing series began when he experienced three incidents of prejudice on a single day. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the location of every incident and document it – the project has since spiralled to incorporate experiences shared by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “It seems pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

The artist selected the flower not just for the direct association – it has long been a term of homophobic abuse – but also because its origin is the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is reflective, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The intention on the event day is to plant pansies at new locations and also replant flowers in places he has honored before, all the while conversing with those on the walking tour about the events and his personal experiences. “We’ve seen quite a few following earlier installations,” he says mournfully.

Moving Forward with Hope

He desires his work – and