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Visitors to the renowned gallery are accustomed to surprising displays in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have basked under an artificial sun, slid down helter skelters, and seen AI-powered jellyfish hovering through the air. However this marks the first time they will be engaging themselves in the detailed nose cavities of a reindeer. The latest artistic project for this huge space—created by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—encourages gallerygoers into a maze-like design based on the expanded inside of a reindeer's nose cavities. Once inside, they can stroll around or unwind on skins, listening on earphones to Sámi elders sharing stories and wisdom.

The Significance of the Nose

Why choose the nasal structure? It might seem playful, but the exhibit celebrates a obscure biological feat: experts have found that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the ambient air it takes in by 80°C, allowing the animal to thrive in harsh Arctic temperatures. Enlarging the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara says, "creates a feeling of insignificance that you as a human being are not dominant over nature." The artist is a ex- writer, children's author, and rights advocate, who is from a reindeer-herding family in northern Norway. "Maybe that generates the possibility to shift your perspective or evoke some humility," she states.

A Celebration to Sámi Culture

The labyrinthine installation is among various features in Sara's immersive commission showcasing the heritage, understanding, and philosophy of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Partially migratory, the Sámi count about 100,000 people ranged across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an region they call Sápmi). They've faced discrimination, integration policies, and eradication of their dialect by all four states. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the center of the Sámi belief system and origin tale, the installation also highlights the group's struggles relating to the environmental emergency, property rights, and colonialism.

Meaning in Materials

At the long entry ramp, there's a towering, 26-metre formation of pelts ensnared by utility lines. It represents a metaphor for the political and economic systems limiting the Sámi. Part pylon, part spiritual ascent, this component of the installation, titled Goavve-, refers to the Sámi term for an harsh environmental condition, wherein dense layers of ice appear as changing conditions liquefy and refreeze the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary winter nourishment, lichen. This phenomenon is a consequence of climate change, which is happening up to at an accelerated rate in the Arctic than elsewhere.

A few years back, I visited Sara in a remote town during a severe cold period and went with Sámi herders on their Arctic vehicles in chilly conditions as they hauled containers of supplementary feed on to the exposed Arctic plains to dispense through labor. These animals gathered round us, pawing the frozen ground in vain attempts for mossy pieces. This resource-intensive and demanding process is having a significant effect on herding practices—and on the animals' independence. But the alternative is malnutrition. As goavvi winters become frequent, reindeer are dying—a number from starvation, others suffocating after plunging into lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. In a sense, the art is a monument to them. "With the layering of components, in a way I'm transporting the condition to London," says Sara.

Opposing Belief Systems

This artwork also emphasizes the sharp difference between the modern interpretation of electricity as a resource to be utilized for profit and existence and the Sámi worldview of life force as an natural power in creatures, individuals, and land. Tate Modern's legacy as a fossil fuel plant is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi view as eco-imperialism by regional governments. As they strive to be standard bearers for renewable energy, Nordic nations have disagreed with the Sámi over the construction of wind energy projects, river barriers, and mines on their native soil; the Sámi argue their human rights, incomes, and culture are endangered. "It's hard being such a tiny group to stand your ground when the justifications are rooted in global sustainability," Sara observes. "Extractivism has appropriated the rhetoric of ecology, but yet it's just striving to find better ways to continue practices of consumption."

Individual Conflicts

She and her family have themselves clashed with the national administration over its tightening rules on reindeer management. Previously, Sara's brother undertook a series of ultimately unsuccessful lawsuits over the forced culling of his animals, apparently to stop overgrazing. As a show of solidarity, Sara produced a extended series of artworks called Pile O'Sápmi featuring a huge drape of four hundred cranial remains, which was shown at the 2017's event Documenta 14 and later acquired by the national institution, where it hangs in the entryway.

Art as Awareness

For many Sámi, creative work is the only domain in which they can be heard by the global community. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|