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Attendees to the renowned gallery are familiar to unusual encounters in its vast Turbine Hall. They've relaxed under an artificial sun, descended down helter skelters, and witnessed robotic sea creatures hovering through the air. But this marks the inaugural time they will be engaging themselves in the intricate nose chambers of a reindeer. The current creative installation for this cavernous space—created by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites gallerygoers into a maze-like design inspired by the scaled-up interior of a reindeer's nose airways. Inside, they can meander around or chill out on reindeer hides, listening on earphones to Sámi elders telling stories and insights.

Why the Nose?

Why the nose? It may sound quirky, but the installation pays tribute to a rarely recognized scientific wonder: scientists have found that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the ambient air it takes in by 80°C, allowing the animal to survive in extreme Arctic temperatures. Enlarging the nose to larger than human size, Sara notes, "produces a sense of insignificance that you as a human being are not superior over nature." The artist is a former reporter, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who hails from a herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Perhaps that generates the possibility to change your perspective or spark some humility," she adds.

A Celebration to Indigenous Heritage

The maze-like structure is one of several components in Sara's engaging commission showcasing the heritage, understanding, and philosophy of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Partially migratory, the Sámi total approximately 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an area they call Sápmi). They've experienced discrimination, integration policies, and eradication of their dialect by all four nations. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the art also draws attention to the people's struggles connected to the global warming, land dispossession, and imperialism.

Metaphor in Elements

At the lengthy entry incline, there's a towering, eighty-five-foot structure of pelts entangled by power and light cables. It serves as a symbol for the governance and financial structures limiting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part spiritual ascent, this section of the exhibit, titled Goavve-, refers to the Sámi name for an harsh environmental condition, whereby solid sheets of ice develop as fluctuating conditions liquefy and refreeze the snow, encasing the reindeers' key cold-season nourishment, lichen. This phenomenon is a consequence of global heating, which is occurring up to much more rapidly in the Polar region than elsewhere.

Previously, I visited Sara in the Norwegian far north during a icy season and went with Sámi pastoralists on their snowmobiles in freezing temperatures as they hauled containers of supplementary feed on to the wind-scoured frozen landscape to provide through labor. These animals gathered round us, pawing the frozen ground in vain attempts for lichen-covered morsels. This resource-intensive and labour-intensive procedure is having a significant impact on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' natural survival. However the choice is death. When such conditions become commonplace, reindeer are perishing—some from starvation, others suffocating after falling into water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. To some extent, the art is a monument to them. "With the layering of components, in a way I'm transporting the condition to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Belief Systems

The sculpture also underscores the sharp divergence between the modern interpretation of energy as a resource to be exploited for profit and livelihood and the Sámi outlook of life force as an innate power in animals, people, and the environment. Tate Modern's history as a industrial facility is linked with this, as is what the Sámi see as green colonialism by Scandinavian states. As they strive to be standard bearers for clean sources, Scandinavian countries have locked horns with the Sámi over the development of turbine fields, river barriers, and extraction sites on their native soil; the Sámi argue their legal protections, ways of life, and traditions are at risk. "It's very difficult being such a tiny group to defend yourself when the reasons are grounded in global sustainability," Sara observes. "Extractivism has adopted the language of sustainability, but yet it's just attempting to find better ways to continue habits of use."

Personal Challenges

Sara and her family have themselves conflicted with the state authorities over its tightening regulations on animal husbandry. In 2016, Sara's sibling embarked on a sequence of finally failed court actions over the required reduction of his livestock, apparently to stop vegetation depletion. To back him, Sara created a four-year series of pieces named Pile O'Sápmi featuring a huge curtain of numerous animal bones, which was exhibited at the the event Documenta 14 and later obtained by the National Museum of Oslo, where it hangs in the entrance.

The Role of Art in Activism

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