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Guests to the renowned gallery are familiar to surprising encounters in its expansive Turbine Hall. They've basked under an simulated sun, glided down amusement rides, and seen automated sea creatures floating through the air. Yet this marks the initial time they will be engaging themselves in the intricate nasal cavities of a reindeer. The newest creative installation for this huge space—designed by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites visitors into a winding construction modeled after the expanded interior of a reindeer's nose cavities. Upon entering, they can stroll around or relax on reindeer hides, tuning in on headphones to community leaders imparting narratives and wisdom.

The Significance of the Nose

What's the focus on the nose? It may appear whimsical, but the installation celebrates a little-known scientific wonder: researchers have found that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the surrounding air it inhales by 80°C, helping the animal to endure in extreme Arctic temperatures. Expanding the nose to bigger than a person, Sara says, "creates a feeling of insignificance that you as a human being are not dominant over nature." Sara is a ex- writer, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who hails from a pastoral family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Maybe that creates the possibility to alter your viewpoint or evoke some modesty," she states.

A Tribute to Traditional Ways

The maze-like structure is one of several elements in Sara's immersive art project celebrating the heritage, science, and philosophy of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Partially migratory, the Sámi count about 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an territory they call Sápmi). They've endured discrimination, forced assimilation, and eradication of their dialect by all four nations. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi mythology and origin tale, the work also spotlights the community's challenges relating to the environmental emergency, land dispossession, and imperialism.

Symbolism in Materials

At the long access incline, there's a towering, eighty-five-foot sculpture of skins ensnared by power and light cables. It can be read as a metaphor for the governance and financial structures restricting the Sámi. Part pylon, part celestial ladder, this component of the exhibit, called Goavve-, points to the Sámi word for an severe climatic event, whereby dense coatings of ice form as varying temperatures liquefy and ice over the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary cold-season food, moss. This phenomenon is a outcome of climate change, which is occurring up to much more rapidly in the Far North than globally.

Previously, I visited Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a icy season and went with Sámi reindeer keepers on their Arctic vehicles in biting cold as they hauled containers of food pellets on to the exposed tundra to dispense manually. The herd gathered round us, scratching the icy ground in vain attempts for vegetative morsels. This expensive and laborious method is having a severe influence on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the other option is death. As goavvi winters become commonplace, reindeer are perishing—a number from lack of food, others suffocating after plunging into lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. In a sense, the installation is a tribute to them. "Through the stacking of materials, in a way I'm transporting the condition to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Belief Systems

The installation also highlights the sharp divergence between the western view of power as a asset to be utilized for economic benefit and survival and the Sámi worldview of life force as an innate power in creatures, people, and the environment. Tate Modern's history as a fossil fuel plant is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi see as eco-imperialism by regional governments. As they strive to be leaders for renewable energy, Scandinavian countries have clashed with the Sámi over the construction of wind energy projects, water power facilities, and extraction sites on their native soil; the Sámi argue their legal protections, ways of life, and traditions are endangered. "It's very difficult being such a small minority to stand your ground when the justifications are rooted in saving the world," Sara notes. "Resource exploitation has co-opted the rhetoric of environmentalism, but still it's just attempting to find better ways to persist in habits of expenditure."

Personal Conflicts

Sara and her relatives have personally disagreed with the Norwegian government over its increasingly stringent rules on herding. Previously, Sara's brother embarked on a sequence of unsuccessful court actions over the required reduction of his animals, apparently to stop excessive feeding. In support, Sara developed a multi-year set of artworks named Pile O'Sápmi including a colossal screen of 400 reindeer skulls, which was exhibited at the 2017 art exhibition Documenta 14 and later purchased by the public gallery, where it resides in the lobby.

The Role of Art in Awareness

For many Sámi, visual expression appears the only domain in which they can be understood by outsiders. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|