🔗 Share this article

Back in 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger initiated one of his last major projects. Recognized for creating art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to addressing global challenges from anti-nuclear advocacy to ethical eating. Via a concise video message, he requested support for a international event to honor the environment.

“I call upon you for your participation in this worldwide call for a day of action to commemorate our planet on 4 November 2015,” he declared, inviting artists and creatives to oppose the continuing disappearance of species. “Our responsibility is to make audiences aware of the richness and complexity in nature … and by doing so creativity will explore domains that are inherently creative.”

The Inception of Environmental Reflection

Thus the environmental art day was born, a day when creatives nationwide produced pieces to the unfolding climate catastrophe. One of the curators, who worked closely with Metzger in his last days, notes his drive for action. “There was a great sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “My advice was – don’t delay. No need to pause for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. We should proceed.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, Remember Nature did not incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but supporters think its influence can still be seen in campaigns like artist-led declarations and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the eco-friendliness of their methods. That’s why she is reviving it to commemorate its ten-year mark. Part of the 18 lead artists involved this time are Yu-Chen Wang and other notable figures. All participants have produced imagery, made video appeals, and developed pieces set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Planting Hope

In conversation with the artist, she is on site in the countryside, helping plant apple trees that will create a coiled garden. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and half educational workshop. As she explains, the preparation and sowing sessions have already included learning about maths (measuring out the planting intervals), science (exploring the apple’s DNA), and history (mapping the backgrounds of how various cultivars arrived in Britain).

Several the apples were selected because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties. We have one apple that releases scarcolored sap

“A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got amusing labels such as the other unusual varieties,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that produces scarlet-colored sap. Every one carries stories behind them. The ancient variety was imported 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 thoughtfully connected of the environment and the control we have over it. “In their experience, apples were just things you buy from a supermarket, so I was prompting them, on their next shopping trip, to read the label and see their names and where they were grown. Hopefully it says Kent!”

Cultural Projects Across the Country

Within the city, one artist’s work about extinction will engage visitors looking through Tate Modern on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been vanished in modern times. Every ice sheet will be depicted on the exhibition spaces using invisible ink. Each discovery, a chime will sound and a recitation will be performed to remember that particular glacier.

Elsewhere, up in Barrow-in-Furness, a creative will be hosting a open display about our alienation from the environment, as well as hosting a community dinner, prepared with sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, an artist is broadcasting her musical project, in which regional performers embark on a mission to perform for vegetation in a green space.

Young Insights

Following this approach, a featured creator will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the actual event she is aiming to decorate an art space in youth creations that document their dreams and worries for the future. “Children’s words and images are powerful because they’re not as restricted as mature perspectives,” she says in her public appeal. “Young people’s input to the world is something truly special and it may stimulate a feeling of duty from everyone. Youth is pure. They have fears about the future. But let’s not make it about worry – it should be about hope and making sure that they get a future.”

Tributes and Thoughts

Paul Harfleet’s work also connects with children. As a former drag queen, his avian project involves drawing birds and then performing as birds – and for the initiative he is intending to tackle a local symbol. He is also conducting a itinerant journey of the city, visiting various sites that have been part of his long-term work over the recent decades. That ongoing series started after he endured multiple occurrences of homophobic abuse on a one occasion. To counter this, Harfleet decided to sow a flower at the site of each occurrence and photograph it – the project has since expanded to cover events shared by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they are temporary,” says Harfleet. “Apparently birds consume them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

He picked the pansy 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 was linked to a man who is thoughtful, and that, of course, is a terrible thing,” he says.

The project on 4 November is to place blooms at fresh spots and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while talking to those on the itinerant journey about the occurrences and his memories of them. “I’ve recorded quite a few after my previous work,” he says mournfully.

Advancing Positively

He desires his work – and