🔗 Share this article

Back in 2015, artist and activist Gustav Metzger embarked on one of his final significant endeavors. Famed for pioneering auto-destructive art, Metzger had dedicated his life to responding to global challenges from peace activism to vegetarianism. Through a short video message, he requested support for a global day of action to celebrate the natural world.

“I call upon you for your involvement in this worldwide call for a day of action to reflect on the environment on 4 November 2015,” he stated, encouraging artists and creatives to resist the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “The mission is to help the public recall of the abundance and sophistication in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into territories that are fundamentally innovative.”

The Inception of Environmental Reflection

And so the environmental art day was born, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. Jo Joelson, who cared for Metzger in his later life, remembers his drive for action. “He had a profound sense of urgency for him at the end of his life,” she says. “I urged him – don’t delay. We shouldn’t hold back for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. We should proceed.”

After Ten Years

A decade on, Remember Nature did not sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but Joelson believes its legacy can still be seen in campaigns like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how artists approach the sustainability of their work. For this purpose she is relaunching it to mark its decade milestone. Included in the featured creators taking part currently are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. All participants have designed posters, recorded calls to action, and developed pieces set to be unveiled on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

When speaking to the artist, she is out in a field in Kent, helping plant apple trees that will create a coiled garden. Collaborating with schoolchildren, her project is somewhat artistic and somewhat instructive. She describes, the design and cultivation sessions have already included learning about measurements (calculating the planting intervals), science (discussing the apple’s DNA), and geography (researching the stories of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).

Many of the apples were picked because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that releases crimson liquid

“Many of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the Bloody Butcher,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. Each has histories attached. The historical cultivar was introduced by the Romans. The Kentish variety is the apple that fell from a tree and hit the scientist’s head.”

Gallaccio wanted the children to be more consciously engaged of the natural world and the power we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you get at a supermarket, so I was prompting them, next time they were out, to read the label and see what they’re called and their origin. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Cultural Projects Throughout Britain

At the capital, a participant’s Book of Loss will involve participants exploring a major gallery on a quest to find the seven major glaciers that have been lost in the past decade. All formations will be illustrated on the exhibition spaces using special pens. When located, a alert will occur and a performance will be performed to honor that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in a northern town, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a public show about our disconnection from the land, as well as organizing a shared meal, cooked from sustainable ingredients. Further north, Uta Kögelsberger is streaming her musical project, in which local singers begin a project to perform for vegetation in a green space.

Young Insights

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be engaging schoolchildren – on the actual event she is aiming to cover Cambridge’s Kettle’s Yard in kids’ letters and drawings that express their aspirations and concerns for the tomorrow. “Kids’ art are powerful because they’re not as inhibited as grown-ups’,” she says in her recorded message. “What children have to offer to the world is something truly special and hopefully it will inspire a sense of responsibility from each person. Kids are unbiased. They have anxieties about what’s next. But it isn’t meant to be about worry – it should be about positivity and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Memorials and Memory

Another artist’s work also connects with children. Drawing on past experience, his feathered initiative involves drawing birds and then embodying them – and for the event he is planning to address an iconic figure. He is also conducting a itinerant journey of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his long-term work over the past twenty years. That ongoing series started after he experienced several events of discrimination on a particular day. In response, Harfleet decided to plant a pansy at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since grown to incorporate experiences experienced by other people across the world. “The flowers remain there but they don’t often last,” says Harfleet. “It seems wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a short-lived memorial.”

He picked the flower not just for the clear connection – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its etymology comes from 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 Remember Nature day is to plant pansies at additional sites and also renew the tributes in places he has previously memorialised, all the while discussing with those on the guided walk about the incidents and his memories of them. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

The artist wishes his work – and