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Guests to the renowned gallery are accustomed to surprising displays in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have basked under an simulated sun, slid down spiral slides, and witnessed robotic jellyfish floating through the air. Yet this marks the initial time they will be engaging themselves in the intricate nose passages of a reindeer. The latest artistic project for this cavernous space—created by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages patrons into a winding construction modeled after the scaled-up inside of a reindeer's nasal airways. Once inside, they can meander around or chill out on pelts, tuning in on headphones to Sámi elders imparting stories and insights.

The Significance of the Nose

Why the nose? It could appear whimsical, but the exhibit honors a little-known natural marvel: experts have uncovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the ambient air it inhales by 80°C, helping the animal to survive in extreme Arctic climates. Enlarging the nose to larger than human size, Sara notes, "creates a feeling of insignificance that you as a human being are not superior over nature." The artist is a former journalist, children's author, and land defender, who is from a herding family in the far north of Norway. "Possibly that fosters the possibility to shift your viewpoint or spark some humbleness," she adds.

An Homage to Indigenous Heritage

The labyrinthine structure is part of a components in Sara's engaging exhibition celebrating the traditions, knowledge, and worldview of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Partially migratory, the Sámi number about 100,000 people spread across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an area they call Sápmi). They've faced oppression, cultural suppression, and eradication of their dialect by all four states. Through highlighting the reindeer, an animal at the heart of the Sámi belief system and origin tale, the art also spotlights the people's struggles associated with the climate crisis, property rights, and external control.

Symbolism in Components

On the extended entrance incline, there's a towering, 26-metre formation of pelts trapped by power and light cables. It represents a symbol for the societal frameworks restricting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part celestial ladder, this section of the exhibit, titled Goavve-, relates to the Sámi name for an severe climatic event, whereby thick sheets of ice form as varying weather melt and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' main winter sustenance, fungus. The condition is a result of planetary warming, which is taking place up to much more rapidly in the Arctic than globally.

Previously, I visited Sara in the Norwegian far north during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi pastoralists on their Arctic vehicles in chilly conditions as they hauled carts of animal nutrition on to the wind-scoured Arctic plains to dispense through labor. The herd crowded round us, scratching the frozen ground in vain for mossy morsels. This resource-intensive and laborious method is having a significant impact on herding practices—and on the animals' natural survival. Yet the other option is malnutrition. As these icy periods become frequent, reindeer are succumbing—some from starvation, others submerging after sinking in water bodies through thinning ice sheets. In a sense, the art is a memorial to them. "By overlapping of materials, in a way I'm introducing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Worldviews

The installation also emphasizes the clear contrast between the industrial interpretation of energy as a asset to be harnessed for gain and livelihood and the Sámi worldview of vitality as an innate life force in animals, humans, and land. Tate Modern's legacy as a industrial facility is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi see as environmental exploitation by Nordic countries. In their efforts to be exemplars for sustainable power, Nordic nations have clashed with the Sámi over the development of wind energy projects, hydroelectric dams, and extraction sites on their native soil; the Sámi argue their fundamental freedoms, incomes, and culture are at risk. "It's challenging being such a small minority to protect your rights when the reasons are grounded in global sustainability," Sara comments. "Extractivism has appropriated the rhetoric of sustainability, but nonetheless it's just aiming to find better ways to persist in habits of expenditure."

Family Challenges

She and her family have personally conflicted with the state authorities over its tightening policies on herding. A few years ago, Sara's brother embarked on a series of ultimately unsuccessful legal cases over the mandatory slaughter of his animals, apparently to stop overgrazing. As a show of solidarity, Sara developed a multi-year collection of pieces named Pile O'Sápmi featuring a huge drape of 400 animal bones, which was exhibited at the 2017 show Documenta 14 and later obtained by the national institution, where it is displayed in the lobby.

Creative Expression as Awareness

Among the community, visual expression is the sole domain in which they can be heard by the global community. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|