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Visitors to the renowned gallery are used to unusual encounters in its spacious Turbine Hall. They've relaxed under an man-made sun, slid down amusement rides, and observed AI-powered sea creatures floating through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be engaging themselves in the detailed nasal passages of a reindeer. The newest artistic project for this immense space—developed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages visitors into a labyrinthine design modeled after the scaled-up inside of a reindeer's nasal passages. Once inside, they can meander around or chill out on reindeer hides, listening on headphones to tribal seniors telling narratives and knowledge.

The Significance of the Nose

Why the nose? It may appear whimsical, but the artwork pays tribute to a obscure scientific wonder: experts have found that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the ambient air it takes in by eighty degrees, allowing the animal to endure in harsh Arctic climates. Scaling the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara notes, "generates a sense of insignificance that you as a individual are not in control over nature." The artist is a former reporter, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who hails from a herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Possibly that creates the possibility to alter your viewpoint or trigger some humility," she states.

An Homage to Traditional Ways

The maze-like installation is among various features in Sara's immersive art project celebrating the culture, knowledge, and philosophy of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi total approximately 100,000 people spread across the Norwegian north, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an area they call Sápmi). They have endured oppression, forced assimilation, and eradication of their language by all four nations. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an animal at the heart of the Sámi belief system and creation story, the installation also spotlights the community's struggles relating to the climate crisis, loss of territory, and external control.

Meaning in Elements

On the extended entrance incline, there's a looming, 26-metre structure of skins ensnared by utility lines. It represents a metaphor for the governance and financial structures constraining the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part spiritual ascent, this part of the installation, titled Goavve-, refers to the Sámi name for an severe climatic event, in which dense sheets of ice form as changing conditions thaw and ice over the snow, locking in the reindeers' key cold-season sustenance, lichen. This phenomenon is a outcome of planetary warming, which is happening up to much more rapidly in the Arctic than globally.

Previously, I visited Sara in the Norwegian far north during a icy season and accompanied Sámi herders on their motorized sleds in chilly conditions as they transported carts of food pellets on to the wind-scoured tundra to provide through labor. The reindeer gathered round us, pawing the slippery ground in vain attempts for lichen-covered bits. This costly and laborious procedure is having a significant impact on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. Yet the other option is starvation. When such conditions become commonplace, reindeer are dying—some from lack of food, others submerging after plunging into streams through unstable frozen surfaces. On one level, the work is a tribute to them. "Through the stacking of materials, in a way I'm transporting the condition to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

The sculpture also highlights the sharp divergence between the modern view of electricity as a commodity to be exploited for profit and livelihood and the Sámi outlook of vitality as an inherent essence in animals, people, and the environment. Tate Modern's past as a fossil fuel plant is linked with this, as is what the Sámi view as environmental exploitation by Scandinavian states. While attempting to be leaders for clean sources, these states have disagreed with the Sámi over the development of wind energy projects, water power facilities, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi contend their legal protections, livelihoods, and culture are at risk. "It's hard being such a limited population to protect your rights when the reasons are based on saving the world," Sara notes. "Resource exploitation has co-opted the rhetoric of ecology, but yet it's just striving to find alternative ways to persist in practices of use."

Family Struggles

She and her family have themselves conflicted with the state authorities over its increasingly stringent rules on herding. In 2016, Sara's brother initiated a sequence of unsuccessful lawsuits over the required reduction of his livestock, apparently to stop vegetation depletion. To back him, Sara developed a four-year collection of artworks titled Pile O'Sápmi including a huge screen of numerous reindeer skulls, which was shown at the 2017's show Documenta 14 and later purchased by the National Museum of Oslo, where it is displayed in the lobby.

The Role of Art in Awareness

For many Sámi, art is the exclusive sphere in which they can be understood by outsiders. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|