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Attendees to the renowned gallery are familiar to surprising displays in its vast Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an artificial sun, slid down amusement rides, and seen robotic jellyfish floating through the air. But this marks the first time they will be immersing themselves in the complex nose cavities of a reindeer. The current creative installation for this huge space—developed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages visitors into a labyrinthine structure based on the scaled-up inside of a reindeer's nasal airways. Upon entering, they can wander around or relax on reindeer hides, listening on headphones to tribal seniors telling tales and wisdom.

Why the Nose?

What's the focus on the nose? It may appear quirky, but the exhibit honors a obscure natural marvel: experts have found that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can heat the ambient air it breathes in by 80°C, allowing the creature to thrive in inhospitable Arctic climates. Enlarging the nose to bigger than a person, Sara says, "creates a feeling of insignificance that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." The artist is a ex- journalist, young adult author, and land defender, who hails from a reindeer-herding family in northern Norway. "Maybe that creates the possibility to shift your viewpoint or evoke some humility," she adds.

A Celebration to Indigenous Heritage

The maze-like structure is among various components in Sara's immersive art project celebrating the traditions, science, and philosophy of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi count approximately 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an area they call Sápmi). They have faced oppression, integration policies, and repression of their tongue by all four nations. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the core of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the installation also spotlights the people's issues associated with the global warming, loss of territory, and external control.

Metaphor in Components

Along the extended access incline, there's a soaring, 26-metre formation of skins ensnared by electrical wires. It serves as a metaphor for the political and economic systems restricting the Sámi. Part pylon, part celestial ladder, this section of the installation, called Goavve-, relates to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, whereby solid layers of ice form as changing temperatures thaw and solidify again the snow, encasing the reindeers' key cold-season sustenance, moss. Goavvi is a result of planetary warming, which is happening up to at an accelerated rate in the Polar region than globally.

Three years ago, I met with Sara in a remote town during a icy season and went with Sámi pastoralists on their motorized sleds in freezing temperatures as they hauled carts of food pellets on to the exposed tundra to distribute through labor. The reindeer surrounded round us, scratching the icy ground in vain attempts for lichen-covered pieces. This costly and labour-intensive process is having a drastic effect on herding practices—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the alternative is starvation. When such conditions become commonplace, reindeer are perishing—some from lack of food, others drowning after falling into streams through thinning ice sheets. On one level, the art is a monument to them. "With the layering of elements, in a way I'm transporting the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Diverging Perspectives

The sculpture also emphasizes the sharp difference between the modern view of power as a resource to be harnessed for gain and existence and the Sámi worldview of vitality as an natural essence in animals, humans, and nature. Tate Modern's past as a coal and oil power station is connected to this, as is what the Sámi see as green colonialism by Scandinavian states. In their efforts to be standard bearers for clean sources, Scandinavian countries have disagreed with the Sámi over the building of windfarms, river barriers, and mines on their ancestral land; the Sámi contend their human rights, ways of life, and way of life are at risk. "It's hard being such a tiny group to stand your ground when the reasons are grounded in global sustainability," Sara notes. "Resource exploitation has co-opted the rhetoric of environmentalism, but nonetheless it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to continue patterns of consumption."

Personal Challenges

Sara and her relatives have themselves conflicted with the state authorities over its ever-stricter policies on animal husbandry. In 2016, Sara's sibling initiated a set of ultimately unsuccessful lawsuits over the mandatory slaughter of his herd, apparently to stop excessive feeding. As a show of solidarity, Sara developed a extended collection of artworks named Pile O'Sápmi including a massive drape of four hundred reindeer skulls, which was exhibited at the the event Documenta 14 and later purchased by the public gallery, where it resides in the entrance.

Art as Awareness

For many Sámi, visual expression seems the exclusive sphere in which they can be heard by the global community. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|