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Attendees to Tate Modern are accustomed to unusual experiences in its vast Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an man-made sun, slid down spiral slides, and witnessed automated sea creatures hovering through the air. However this marks the initial time they will be immersing themselves in the complex nasal chambers of a reindeer. The current artist commission for this huge space—designed by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes patrons into a maze-like construction inspired by the scaled-up inside of a reindeer's nose airways. Upon entering, they can wander around or unwind on pelts, listening on earphones to community leaders sharing tales and insights.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

What's the focus on the nose? It might appear whimsical, but the installation honors a little-known natural marvel: experts have discovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the ambient air it takes in by 80 degrees celsius, helping the animal to thrive in extreme Arctic conditions. Expanding the nose to bigger than a person, Sara explains, "creates a sense of insignificance that you as a person are not in control over nature." She is a ex- reporter, writer for kids, and land defender, who comes from a pastoral family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Perhaps that creates the potential to change your viewpoint or spark some humility," she continues.

A Tribute to Indigenous Heritage

The maze-like installation is one of several components in Sara's immersive exhibition honoring the heritage, knowledge, and worldview of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Partially migratory, the Sámi number about 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an territory they call Sápmi). They've experienced persecution, integration policies, and eradication of their tongue by all four countries. Through highlighting the reindeer, an animal at the core of the Sámi mythology and origin tale, the art also spotlights the community's challenges associated with the environmental emergency, land dispossession, and external control.

Meaning in Elements

At the long access incline, there's a soaring, 26-meter formation of pelts trapped by electrical wires. It serves as a symbol for the governance and financial structures limiting the Sámi. Part pylon, part celestial ladder, this section of the artwork, called Goavve-, points to the Sámi name for an severe climatic event, wherein thick layers of ice appear as varying temperatures liquefy and ice over the snow, locking in the reindeers' primary cold-season food, lichen. The condition is a consequence of planetary warming, which is taking place up to much more rapidly in the Arctic than elsewhere.

Previously, I visited Sara in the Norwegian far north during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi herders on their snowmobiles in freezing temperatures as they transported containers of animal nutrition on to the exposed Arctic plains to provide through labor. The herd gathered round us, digging the frozen ground in futility for mossy pieces. This resource-intensive and laborious process is having a significant impact on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' independence. Yet the choice is death. As goavvi winters become commonplace, reindeer are dying—some from starvation, others suffocating after plunging into water bodies through prematurely melting ice. On one level, the installation is a memorial to them. "By overlapping of elements, in a way I'm transporting the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Opposing Worldviews

This artwork also underscores the stark difference between the industrial interpretation of energy as a commodity to be harnessed for economic benefit and livelihood and the Sámi worldview of life force as an inherent life force in animals, people, and nature. The gallery's history as a fossil fuel plant is connected to this, as is what the Sámi see as eco-imperialism by Nordic countries. As they strive to be leaders for sustainable power, 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, incomes, and traditions are endangered. "It's hard being such a small minority to defend yourself when the justifications are grounded in global sustainability," Sara comments. "Resource exploitation has adopted the discourse of ecology, but still it's just aiming to find more suitable ways to continue practices of expenditure."

Family Challenges

Sara and her kin have personally conflicted with the state authorities over its increasingly stringent rules on herding. Previously, Sara's brother embarked on a series of finally failed court actions over the forced culling of his livestock, apparently to stop vegetation depletion. To back him, Sara created a multi-year set of pieces called Pile O'Sápmi including a massive curtain of four hundred cranial remains, which was shown at the 2017 event Documenta 14 and later acquired by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the entryway.

The Role of Art in Awareness

Among the community, art appears the only domain in which they can be heard by outsiders. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|