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Visitors to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unexpected experiences in its vast Turbine Hall. They have basked under an man-made sun, glided down amusement rides, and seen AI-powered sea creatures floating through the air. However this marks the initial time they will be engaging themselves in the complex nose cavities of a reindeer. The latest artist commission for this immense space—designed by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—encourages gallerygoers into a winding design inspired by the expanded interior of a reindeer's nasal airways. Inside, they can meander around or chill out on reindeer hides, listening on headphones to tribal seniors sharing narratives and insights.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

What's the focus on the nose? It may seem playful, but the installation pays tribute to a obscure natural marvel: experts have found that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the incoming air it breathes in by 80°C, enabling the creature to survive in harsh Arctic temperatures. Enlarging the nose to larger than human size, Sara notes, "generates a sense of smallness that you as a human being are not dominant over nature." She is a former journalist, young adult author, and land defender, who hails from a herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Possibly that creates the potential to shift your outlook or spark some humility," she adds.

An Homage to Traditional Ways

The labyrinthine structure is among various features in Sara's immersive commission celebrating the traditions, science, and philosophy of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi count approximately 100,000 people spread across the Norwegian north, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They've experienced persecution, forced assimilation, and eradication of their dialect by all four nations. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an animal at the heart of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the art also draws attention to the people's issues relating to the climate crisis, land dispossession, and imperialism.

Symbolism in Components

Along the long entrance ramp, there's a looming, eighty-five-foot structure of reindeer hides ensnared by power and light cables. It can be read as a symbol for the societal frameworks constraining the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part spiritual ascent, this part of the exhibit, titled Goavve-, points to the Sámi word for an harsh environmental condition, in which thick coatings of ice appear as fluctuating conditions thaw and refreeze the snow, locking in the reindeers' key winter food, moss. The condition is a result of climate change, which is happening up to four times faster in the Far North than in other regions.

Previously, I met with Sara in a remote town during a goavvi winter and accompanied Sámi pastoralists on their snowmobiles in biting cold as they hauled containers of supplementary feed on to the wind-scoured tundra to provide through labor. These animals gathered round us, pawing the frozen ground in vain attempts for lichen-covered bits. This costly and labour-intensive procedure is having a severe influence on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. However the alternative is starvation. When such conditions become routine, reindeer are perishing—some from starvation, others suffocating after falling into water bodies through prematurely melting ice. On one level, the art is a tribute to them. "With the layering of materials, in a way I'm introducing the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Perspectives

The installation also emphasizes the sharp divergence between the western interpretation of power as a commodity to be harnessed for gain and existence and the Sámi philosophy of vitality as an innate power in animals, humans, and nature. Tate Modern's legacy as a coal and oil power station is linked with this, as is what the Sámi view as eco-imperialism by Nordic countries. In their efforts to be leaders for renewable energy, Nordic nations have locked horns with the Sámi over the construction of windfarms, water power facilities, and extraction sites on their ancestral land; the Sámi argue their fundamental freedoms, livelihoods, and way of life are threatened. "It's challenging being such a limited population to defend yourself when the justifications are grounded in global sustainability," Sara observes. "Mining practices has appropriated the rhetoric of ecology, but nonetheless it's just striving to find alternative ways to maintain practices of expenditure."

Family Struggles

She and her family have themselves conflicted with the Norwegian government over its tightening regulations on herding. Previously, Sara's sibling embarked on a set of unsuccessful court actions over the mandatory slaughter of his herd, ostensibly to stop vegetation depletion. As a show of solidarity, Sara produced a multi-year series of artworks titled Pile O'Sápmi including a colossal drape of numerous reindeer skulls, which was exhibited at the 2017 event Documenta 14 and later purchased by the public gallery, where it resides in the entryway.

The Role of Art in Awareness

For numerous Indigenous people, creative work appears the only domain in which they can be understood by people of other nations. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|