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Back in 2015, visionary and advocate Gustav Metzger initiated one of his ultimate major projects. Recognized for introducing auto-destructive art, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to human struggles from peace activism to ethical eating. Through a short video message, he requested support for a worldwide initiative to celebrate the natural world.

“I, Gustav Metzger, am asking for your participation in this international summons for a day of action to commemorate our planet on the fourth of November, 2015,” he announced, urging makers and thinkers to resist the ongoing loss of flora and fauna. “Our task is to help the public recall of the diversity and intricacy in nature … and by doing so the arts will venture into domains that are inherently creative.”

The Inception of Environmental Reflection

In this way the environmental art day was established, a day when creatives nationwide created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. Jo Joelson, who worked closely with Metzger in his final years, notes his drive for action. “I sensed a profound sense of urgency for him at the final chapter,” she says. “I just said – let’s not mess around. We shouldn’t hold back for sponsorship or for anyone to approve this. Take action immediately.”

A Decade Later

Ten years later, the initiative did not sparked the widespread change across the arts that Metzger had hoped for, but supporters think its legacy can still be observed in movements like artist-led declarations and Extinction Rebellion, as well as in how creatives consider the sustainability of their work. This is the reason she is reviving it to celebrate its ten-year mark. Part of the featured creators taking part currently are Yu-Chen Wang and prominent artists. All participants have produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and produced installations set to be revealed on November 4, 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing the artist, she is on site in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will grow to form a coiled garden. Working with schoolchildren, her project is part creative piece and somewhat instructive. According to her, the preparation and sowing sessions have already involved learning about measurements (calculating the gaps in the orchard), biology (discussing the genetic makeup), and origins (tracing the backgrounds of how distinct varieties arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the Duck’s Bill. We have one apple that produces crimson liquid

“Several the apples were picked 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 decio apple was imported by the Romans. The local breed is the apple that fell from a tree and struck Isaac Newton’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more consciously engaged of nature and the influence we have over it. “To many of them, apples were just things you find in a supermarket, so I was encouraging them, next time they were out, to look on the bag and see what they’re called and where they were grown. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Artistic Responses Nationwide

In London, one artist’s work about extinction will involve participants exploring Tate Modern on a journey to find the frozen formations that have been vanished in recent years. Every ice sheet will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. When located, a bell will ring and a reading will be conducted to honor that specific ice mass.

Elsewhere, up in a northern town, an artist will be hosting a open display about our disconnection from the land, as well as organizing a community dinner, prepared with sustainable ingredients. Further north, an artist is sharing her Some Kind of Love / Forest Choir, in which regional performers begin a project to use music to heal flora in Newcastle’s Jesmond Dene.

Young Insights

Following this approach, a featured creator will be engaging schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is planning to decorate a cultural venue in children’s artwork that express their hopes and fears for the tomorrow. “Kids’ art are compelling because they’re not as trammelled as grown-ups’,” she says in her call to action video. “Young people’s input to the world is something distinctive and it may stimulate a awareness of obligation from everyone. Kids are unbiased. They have fears about the future. But this shouldn’t be about anxiety – it should be about positivity and us ensuring that they get a future.”

Remembrance and Reflection

A participant’s work also resonates for children. With a background in performance, his avian project involves drawing birds and then dressing up as them – and for Remember Nature day he is aiming to represent an iconic figure. He is also staging a walking tour of the city, exploring locations that have been part of his Pansy Project over the recent decades. That ongoing series began when he faced several events of discrimination on a one occasion. As a reaction, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the location of every incident and record it – the project has since grown to cover events shared by other people across the world. “I place the plants there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “Reportedly wildlife enjoys them, so they’re a ephemeral memorial.”

He picked the flower not just for the clear connection – 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 bad quality,” he says.

The plan on Remember Nature day is to sow flowers at fresh spots and also refresh the memorials in places he has previously memorialised, all the while conversing with those on the itinerant journey about the incidents and his recollections. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says with regret.

Moving Forward with Hope

He desires his work – and