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Guests to the renowned gallery are used to unexpected encounters in its vast Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an artificial sun, glided down amusement rides, and witnessed AI-powered jellyfish hovering through the air. However this marks the inaugural time they will be engaging themselves in the detailed nasal cavities of a reindeer. The newest artistic project for this immense space—created by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages gallerygoers into a labyrinthine construction based on the scaled-up interior of a reindeer's nose airways. Upon entering, they can wander around or unwind on skins, tuning in on headphones to tribal seniors telling stories and wisdom.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why the nose? It might sound quirky, but the installation honors a obscure scientific wonder: experts have uncovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the incoming air it takes in by 80°C, helping the animal to endure in inhospitable Arctic conditions. Enlarging the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara says, "generates a sense of insignificance that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." Sara is a former journalist, children's author, and rights advocate, who comes from a pastoral family in northern Norway. "Perhaps that generates the chance to change your viewpoint or evoke some humbleness," she adds.

A Tribute to Sámi Culture

The maze-like installation is part of a features in Sara's absorbing art project showcasing the culture, knowledge, and beliefs of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi total approximately 100,000 people ranged across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an territory they call Sápmi). They've endured oppression, forced assimilation, and eradication of their language by all four states. Through highlighting the reindeer, an animal at the heart of the Sámi cosmology and origin tale, the art also draws attention to the people's issues associated with the environmental emergency, property rights, and external control.

Symbolism in Elements

At the lengthy entry ramp, there's a towering, 26-metre formation of skins entangled by power and light cables. It can be read as a metaphor for the governance and financial structures limiting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this section of the artwork, named Goavve-, points to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, in which thick coatings of ice appear as varying temperatures liquefy and ice over the snow, locking in the reindeers' key cold-season sustenance, fungus. Goavvi is a outcome of climate change, which is taking place up to four times faster in the Arctic than elsewhere.

A few years back, I visited Sara in a remote town during a icy season and accompanied Sámi reindeer keepers on their motorized sleds in chilly conditions as they hauled carts of food pellets on to the exposed Arctic plains to distribute by hand. The reindeer gathered round us, scratching the slippery ground in vain for lichen-covered morsels. This resource-intensive and laborious procedure is having a significant effect on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. Yet the other option is death. As goavvi winters become commonplace, reindeer are succumbing—a number from lack of food, others drowning after sinking in lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. In a sense, the installation is a tribute to them. "By overlapping of materials, in a way I'm transporting the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Opposing Worldviews

The installation also underscores the stark difference between the western interpretation of power as a resource to be utilized for profit and survival and the Sámi philosophy of energy as an innate essence in creatures, people, and land. Tate Modern's legacy as a industrial facility is connected to this, as is what the Sámi consider eco-imperialism by Nordic countries. As they strive to be leaders for renewable energy, Nordic nations have clashed with the Sámi over the construction of wind energy projects, river barriers, and mines on their native soil; the Sámi contend their fundamental freedoms, incomes, and culture are at risk. "It's challenging being such a tiny group to defend yourself when the justifications are rooted in saving the world," Sara comments. "Mining practices has adopted the discourse of sustainability, but yet it's just attempting to find alternative ways to maintain practices of use."

Individual Conflicts

The artist and her family have themselves disagreed with the state authorities over its tightening rules on reindeer management. Previously, Sara's brother initiated a set of unsuccessful court actions over the mandatory slaughter of his herd, supposedly to stop excessive feeding. As a show of solidarity, Sara created a multi-year collection of pieces titled Pile O'Sápmi comprising a colossal curtain of numerous reindeer skulls, which was shown at the 2017's art exhibition Documenta 14 and later purchased by the national institution, where it is displayed in the entryway.

Creative Expression as Advocacy

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