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Visitors to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unusual experiences in its vast Turbine Hall. They have basked under an simulated sun, glided down helter skelters, and observed AI-powered jellyfish drifting through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be venturing themselves in the detailed nasal cavities of a reindeer. The latest artist commission for this cavernous space—designed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages patrons into a winding structure based on the scaled-up interior of a reindeer's nasal passages. Inside, they can wander around or relax on pelts, tuning in on earphones to Sámi elders sharing tales and insights.

Why the Nose?

Why the nose? It might seem quirky, but the installation honors a obscure scientific wonder: experts have found that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the surrounding air it breathes in by eighty degrees, allowing the creature to endure in harsh Arctic temperatures. Enlarging the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara explains, "creates a feeling of insignificance that you as a human being are not dominant over nature." The artist is a former writer, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who is from a herding family in the far north of Norway. "Maybe that generates the chance to shift your outlook or evoke some humbleness," she adds.

A Celebration to Indigenous Heritage

The labyrinthine design is part of a components in Sara's engaging commission celebrating the traditions, knowledge, and beliefs of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi total roughly 100,000 people ranged across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They've endured persecution, forced assimilation, and suppression of their tongue by all four countries. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi belief system and origin tale, the work also draws attention to the group's challenges connected to the environmental emergency, loss of territory, and colonialism.

Symbolism in Elements

On the lengthy entrance slope, there's a soaring, eighty-five-foot formation of skins ensnared by power and light cables. It serves as a symbol for the political and economic systems constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part heavenly staircase, this section of the artwork, titled Goavve-, relates to the Sámi name for an extreme weather phenomenon, wherein dense sheets of ice form as varying weather thaw and refreeze the snow, encasing the reindeers' primary cold-season nourishment, moss. Goavvi is a result of climate change, which is happening up to four times faster in the Polar region than globally.

Previously, I met with Sara in a remote town during a goavvi winter and joined Sámi pastoralists on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they hauled carts of food pellets on to the barren Arctic plains to dispense by hand. The herd gathered round us, pawing the frozen ground in futility for lichen-covered morsels. This costly and labour-intensive procedure is having a severe effect on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' independence. Yet the choice is death. When such conditions become routine, reindeer are dying—some from lack of food, others submerging after plunging into lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. On one level, the work is a monument to them. "With the layering of elements, in a way I'm transporting the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Diverging Perspectives

The installation also highlights the clear divergence between the western view of power as a asset to be exploited for gain and existence and the Sámi philosophy of life force as an natural essence in creatures, people, and nature. Tate Modern's history as a fossil fuel plant is connected to this, as is what the Sámi consider eco-imperialism by Nordic countries. As they strive to be standard bearers for renewable energy, Nordic nations have locked horns with the Sámi over the construction of windfarms, water power facilities, and digging operations on their ancestral land; the Sámi argue their fundamental freedoms, livelihoods, and traditions are threatened. "It's very difficult being such a limited population to stand your ground when the justifications are rooted in saving the world," Sara observes. "Extractivism has co-opted the discourse of sustainability, but yet it's just aiming to find better ways to continue practices of expenditure."

Family Challenges

She and her relatives have themselves clashed with the national administration over its ever-stricter regulations on animal husbandry. Previously, Sara's brother embarked on a set of unsuccessful legal cases over the mandatory slaughter of his herd, ostensibly to stop vegetation depletion. As a show of solidarity, Sara developed a multi-year collection of creations titled Pile O'Sápmi comprising a huge screen of four hundred animal bones, which was exhibited at the 2017 show Documenta 14 and later obtained by the National Museum of Oslo, where it resides in the lobby.

The Role of Art in Awareness

For many Sámi, creative work seems the exclusive sphere in which they can be heard by people of other nations. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|