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Attendees to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unexpected displays in its vast Turbine Hall. They've relaxed under an artificial sun, glided down spiral slides, and seen automated jellyfish hovering through the air. But this marks the first time they will be immersing themselves in the intricate nasal passages of a reindeer. The latest artistic project for this immense space—designed by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—encourages visitors into a maze-like structure modeled after the expanded inside of a reindeer's nose airways. Upon entering, they can wander around or unwind on reindeer hides, listening on earphones to community leaders sharing narratives and wisdom.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why the nose? It could seem playful, but the exhibit celebrates a obscure natural marvel: scientists have found that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the ambient air it takes in by 80 degrees celsius, helping the animal to endure in extreme Arctic temperatures. Enlarging the nose to larger than human size, Sara notes, "creates a feeling of inferiority that you as a human being are not in control over nature." Sara is a ex- writer, young adult author, and environmental activist, who hails from a reindeer-herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Maybe that generates the potential to shift your viewpoint or trigger some humbleness," she states.

A Tribute to Indigenous Heritage

The labyrinthine design is among various features in Sara's engaging commission showcasing the traditions, science, and worldview of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi total roughly 100,000 people spread across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an area they call Sápmi). They've faced discrimination, integration policies, and repression of their tongue by all four states. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi mythology and origin tale, the installation also draws attention to the community's struggles relating to the climate crisis, property rights, and colonialism.

Metaphor in Elements

On the long access incline, there's a soaring, eighty-five-foot formation of skins ensnared by utility lines. It represents a symbol for the governance and financial structures constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part heavenly staircase, this part of the exhibit, called Goavve-, points to the Sámi word for an extreme weather phenomenon, in which dense sheets of ice form as changing weather melt and ice over the snow, encasing the reindeers' main winter nourishment, moss. The condition is a consequence of climate change, which is happening up to four times faster in the Polar region than globally.

A few years back, I traveled to see Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a icy season and went with Sámi pastoralists on their motorized sleds in chilly conditions as they hauled carts of animal nutrition on to the barren tundra to provide by hand. The reindeer crowded round us, digging the frozen ground in vain for lichen-covered morsels. This expensive and demanding process is having a severe effect on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the choice is death. As these icy periods become routine, reindeer are dying—a number from hunger, others drowning after sinking in water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. In a sense, the art is a monument to them. "Through the stacking of materials, in a way I'm introducing the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Belief Systems

The installation also emphasizes the clear contrast between the modern interpretation of energy as a resource to be utilized for economic benefit and existence and the Sámi worldview of vitality as an inherent life force in creatures, humans, and land. Tate Modern's history as a industrial facility is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi see as eco-imperialism by Nordic countries. As they strive to be leaders for clean sources, these states have clashed with the Sámi over the development of turbine fields, water power facilities, and digging operations on their native soil; the Sámi contend their human rights, ways of life, and culture are threatened. "It's hard being such a small minority to defend yourself when the arguments are rooted in global sustainability," Sara notes. "Mining practices has co-opted the language of sustainability, but still it's just striving to find alternative ways to persist in habits of use."

Family Challenges

She and her kin have themselves conflicted with the Norwegian government over its tightening regulations on animal husbandry. In 2016, Sara's sibling initiated a set of ultimately unsuccessful legal cases over the mandatory slaughter of his herd, apparently to stop excessive feeding. To back him, Sara created a extended collection of creations titled Pile O'Sápmi comprising a colossal drape of 400 animal bones, which was exhibited at the 2017 show Documenta 14 and later purchased by the national institution, where it resides in the entrance.

The Role of Art in Activism

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