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Attendees to the renowned gallery are used to unusual displays in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an artificial sun, descended down amusement rides, and witnessed automated sea creatures drifting through the air. But this marks the first time they will be venturing themselves in the complex nose passages of a reindeer. The current artistic project for this immense space—created by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes gallerygoers into a maze-like structure inspired by the scaled-up interior of a reindeer's nose passages. Upon entering, they can stroll around or relax on reindeer hides, listening on earphones to community leaders sharing tales and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

Why the nose? It might seem quirky, but the artwork celebrates a obscure natural marvel: scientists have found that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can warm the ambient air it inhales by 80 degrees celsius, enabling the animal to endure in extreme Arctic temperatures. Scaling the nose to bigger than a person, Sara explains, "produces a feeling of inferiority that you as a human being are not superior over nature." Sara is a ex- writer, children's author, and land defender, who is from a pastoral family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Possibly that creates the possibility to alter your perspective or evoke some modesty," she adds.

A Celebration to Sámi Culture

The winding installation is part of a elements in Sara's engaging commission showcasing the heritage, understanding, and worldview of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Partially migratory, the Sámi total roughly 100,000 people spread across northern Norway, Finland, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They've experienced oppression, forced assimilation, and eradication of their language by all four nations. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the installation also draws attention to the group's challenges relating to the environmental emergency, land dispossession, and imperialism.

Symbolism in Elements

Along the lengthy access ramp, there's a soaring, eighty-five-foot sculpture of pelts trapped by utility lines. It represents a symbol for the governance and financial structures limiting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part spiritual ascent, this component of the artwork, titled Goavve-, relates to the Sámi name for an extreme weather phenomenon, wherein thick coatings of ice form as fluctuating conditions melt and ice over the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary winter sustenance, lichen. Goavvi is a outcome of global heating, which is occurring up to much more rapidly in the Arctic than elsewhere.

Three years ago, I traveled to see Sara in the Norwegian far north during a goavvi winter and joined Sámi herders on their motorized sleds in biting cold as they transported containers of supplementary feed on to the exposed Arctic plains to dispense by hand. These animals gathered round us, pawing the frozen ground in vain for mossy bits. This resource-intensive and laborious procedure is having a drastic effect on herding practices—and on the animals' independence. However the other option is malnutrition. As goavvi winters become routine, reindeer are dying—some from lack of food, others submerging after plunging into lakes and rivers through prematurely melting ice. On one level, the art is a monument to them. "Through the stacking of materials, in a way I'm transporting the condition to London," says Sara.

Opposing Worldviews

The sculpture also highlights the clear difference between the industrial interpretation of electricity as a asset to be exploited for economic benefit and existence and the Sámi outlook of energy as an inherent essence in animals, individuals, and the environment. Tate Modern's past as a fossil fuel plant is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi view as environmental exploitation by Scandinavian states. In their efforts to be leaders for sustainable power, these states have disagreed with the Sámi over the development of wind energy projects, river barriers, and extraction sites on their native soil; the Sámi argue their fundamental freedoms, ways of life, and way of life are at risk. "It's challenging being such a limited population to defend yourself when the arguments are grounded in environmental protection," Sara notes. "Extractivism has adopted the language of ecology, but still it's just attempting to find alternative ways to continue patterns of consumption."

Personal Conflicts

Sara and her kin have personally disagreed with the Norwegian government over its ever-stricter regulations on reindeer management. In 2016, Sara's sibling initiated a series of finally failed lawsuits over the forced culling of his livestock, ostensibly to stop vegetation depletion. As a show of solidarity, Sara produced a extended series of pieces called Pile O'Sápmi including a massive screen of numerous cranial remains, which was exhibited at the the event Documenta 14 and later obtained by the National Museum of Oslo, where it is displayed in the lobby.

Creative Expression as Activism

For many Sámi, creative work appears the sole realm in which they can be heard by outsiders. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|