🔗 Share this article

During 2015, creative and campaigner Gustav Metzger launched one of his ultimate significant endeavors. Known for pioneering art that erases itself, Metzger had devoted his career to responding to human struggles from anti-nuclear advocacy to ethical eating. Through a short video message, he issued a call for a worldwide initiative to honor the environment.

“This is my appeal for your engagement in this international summons for a day of action to reflect on the environment on 4 November 2015,” he stated, encouraging artists and creatives to oppose the continuing disappearance of species. “The mission 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 Birth of Nature Remembrance

And so the environmental art day came into being, a day when cultural practitioners throughout Britain created responses to the escalating planetary emergency. An organizer, who cared for Metzger in his final years, recalls his drive for action. “I sensed a strong sense of urgency for him at the close of his days,” she says. “I urged him – we must act now. No need to pause for funding or for anyone to green light this. Take action immediately.”

Ten Years On

A decade on, the project hasn’t quite incited the mass movement across the arts that Metzger had dreamed of, but supporters think its impact can still be observed in initiatives like artist-led declarations and environmental protests, as well as in how makers handle the environmental impact of their practices. For this purpose she is relaunching it to commemorate its 10-year anniversary. Among the featured creators participating now are A Man Called Adam and prominent artists. All participants have produced imagery, recorded calls to action, and created artworks set to be unveiled on 4 November 2025.

Cultivating Awareness

Interviewing Anya Gallaccio, she is working outdoors in a rural area, helping plant apple trees that will develop into a circular grove. Engaging schoolchildren, her project is half artwork and half educational workshop. According to her, the design and cultivation sessions have already involved learning about mathematics (calculating the distances between trees), science (exploring the hereditary traits), and history (mapping the backgrounds of how different apples arrived in Britain).

A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got funny names such as the Bloody Butcher. We have one apple that releases red juice

“A lot of the apples were chosen because they’ve got humorous titles such as the other unusual varieties,” says Gallaccio. “We have one apple that produces red juice. Each has histories attached. The historical cultivar was brought over by the Romans. The Flower of Kent is the apple that descended from a tree and landed on the scientist’s head.”

She hoped the children to be more actively aware 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 read the label and see their names and where they were grown. Ideally it reads Kent!”

Artistic Responses Throughout Britain

At the capital, Youngsook Choi’s project on disappearance will include attendees looking through Tate Modern on a mission to find the frozen formations that have been disappeared in modern times. Each glacier will be drawn on the gallery’s windows and walls using ultraviolet markers. When located, a alert will occur and a recitation will be conducted to honor that individual formation.

Meanwhile, up in a northern town, Maddi Nicholson will be putting on a open display about our disconnection from the land, as well as hosting a community dinner, cooked from sustainable ingredients. Over in Newcastle, a participant is broadcasting her musical project, in which regional performers begin a project to use music to heal flora in a green space.

Children’s Voices

Like Gallaccio, another participant will be collaborating with schoolchildren – on the scheduled date she is aiming to fill a cultural venue in kids’ letters and drawings that capture their dreams and worries for the tomorrow. “Kids’ art are compelling because they’re not as restricted as grown-ups’,” she says in her call to action video. “The contributions of youth to the world is something distinctive and perhaps it can stimulate a feeling of duty from everyone. Children are innocent. They have fears about the future. But it isn’t meant to be about anxiety – it should be about hope and making sure that they have a tomorrow.”

Remembrance and Reflection

Paul Harfleet’s work also appeals to children. Drawing on past experience, his feathered initiative involves sketching winged creatures and then performing as birds – and for the event he is aiming to represent a local symbol. He is also staging a guided walk of the city, stopping at places that have been part of his Pansy Project over the past twenty years. The project began when he experienced three incidents of prejudice on a single day. In response, Harfleet decided to place a bloom at the site of each occurrence and document it – the project has since spiralled to include incidents experienced by other people across the world. “I leave the pansies there but they fade quickly,” says Harfleet. “It seems pigeons like to eat them, so they’re a very temporary memorial.”

The artist selected the bloom not just for the direct association – it has long been a derogatory label – but also because its name derives from the French verb, penser, to think. “It was linked to a man who is contemplative, and that, of course, is a negative trait,” he says.

The project on 4 November is to plant pansies at new locations and also replant flowers in places he has marked earlier, all the while discussing with those on the walking tour about the events and his personal experiences. “We’ve seen quite a few since I last planted,” he says mournfully.

Advancing Positively

He desires his work – and