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Visitors to the renowned gallery are used to surprising displays in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an man-made sun, descended down amusement rides, and seen AI-powered sea creatures drifting through the air. But this marks the inaugural time they will be immersing themselves in the intricate nasal cavities of a reindeer. The latest creative installation for this huge space—developed by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes visitors into a winding design based on the scaled-up interior of a reindeer's nasal airways. Once inside, they can stroll around or relax on skins, listening on headphones to tribal seniors sharing tales and insights.

The Significance of the Nose

Why the nose? It could appear whimsical, but the artwork honors a little-known biological feat: researchers have found that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the surrounding air it inhales by 80 degrees celsius, allowing the creature to survive in extreme Arctic conditions. Scaling the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara explains, "generates a sense of smallness that you as a person are not dominant over nature." Sara is a ex- writer, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who comes from a pastoral family in northern Norway. "Perhaps that creates the chance to alter your viewpoint or evoke some humility," she continues.

A Celebration to Sámi Culture

The maze-like installation is part of a components in Sara's immersive exhibition honoring the culture, knowledge, and beliefs of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi number about 100,000 people ranged across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They've experienced oppression, forced assimilation, and suppression of their dialect by all four states. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the core of the Sámi mythology and creation story, the work also spotlights the people's struggles connected to the environmental emergency, land dispossession, and external control.

Metaphor in Materials

Along the lengthy access slope, there's a towering, 26-metre formation of pelts ensnared by electrical wires. It serves as a analogy for the governance and financial structures constraining the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part spiritual ascent, this part of the exhibit, titled Goavve-, relates to the Sámi word for an severe climatic event, wherein solid layers of ice develop as fluctuating conditions thaw and refreeze the snow, encasing the reindeers' main cold-season sustenance, lichen. Goavvi is a outcome of global heating, which is occurring up to much more rapidly in the Arctic than globally.

A few years back, I met with Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a goavvi winter and went with Sámi herders on their motorized sleds in biting cold as they transported carts of supplementary feed on to the wind-scoured Arctic plains to provide by hand. The reindeer gathered round us, digging the slippery ground in vain attempts for lichen-covered bits. This expensive and labour-intensive procedure is having a drastic effect on herding practices—and on the animals' independence. But the choice is death. When such conditions become frequent, reindeer are succumbing—some from hunger, others drowning after plunging into water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. In a sense, the work is a memorial to them. "With the layering of components, in a way I'm introducing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

The sculpture also emphasizes the sharp difference between the western view of energy as a resource to be harnessed for profit and livelihood and the Sámi worldview of energy as an natural essence in animals, humans, and land. Tate Modern's past as a fossil fuel plant is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi view as eco-imperialism by Scandinavian states. As they strive to be leaders for renewable energy, these states have clashed with the Sámi over the development of wind energy projects, hydroelectric dams, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi assert their legal protections, ways of life, and culture are threatened. "It's hard being such a tiny group to protect your rights when the arguments are based on global sustainability," Sara notes. "Resource exploitation has adopted the rhetoric of sustainability, but yet it's just attempting to find alternative ways to persist in habits of consumption."

Personal Challenges

She and her kin have themselves disagreed with the state authorities over its tightening regulations on animal husbandry. Previously, Sara's sibling undertook a set of finally failed court actions over the required reduction of his herd, apparently to stop overgrazing. As a show of solidarity, Sara produced a four-year series of artworks named Pile O'Sápmi featuring a massive curtain of four hundred cranial remains, which was exhibited at the 2017's art exhibition Documenta 14 and later obtained by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the lobby.

The Role of Art in Activism

For numerous Indigenous people, art seems the sole realm in which they can be heard by outsiders. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|