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Guests to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unusual displays in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have basked under an simulated sun, slid down amusement rides, and observed automated sea creatures hovering through the air. But this marks the inaugural time they will be engaging themselves in the intricate nasal cavities of a reindeer. The current artist commission for this cavernous space—developed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages gallerygoers into a labyrinthine construction inspired by the scaled-up inside of a reindeer's nose airways. Upon entering, they can wander around or relax on reindeer hides, tuning in on headphones to tribal seniors imparting tales and insights.

The Significance of the Nose

What's the focus on the nose? It could appear whimsical, but the artwork celebrates a obscure biological feat: scientists have discovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can warm the incoming air it takes in by eighty degrees, helping the animal to thrive in harsh Arctic temperatures. Expanding the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara explains, "creates a perception of smallness that you as a person are not dominant over nature." Sara is a former writer, children's author, and environmental activist, who comes from a herding family in the far north of Norway. "Possibly that creates the chance to change your outlook or trigger some humility," she continues.

A Celebration to Sámi Culture

The labyrinthine installation is part of a components in Sara's absorbing exhibition honoring the culture, understanding, and beliefs of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi count approximately 100,000 people ranged across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an region they call Sápmi). They've endured oppression, integration policies, and suppression of their dialect by all four nations. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the core of the Sámi belief system and creation story, the installation also spotlights the group's issues connected to the global warming, land dispossession, and imperialism.

Metaphor in Elements

Along the lengthy entry ramp, there's a looming, 26-metre sculpture of pelts entangled by electrical wires. It represents a analogy for the societal frameworks constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part celestial ladder, this section of the artwork, titled Goavve-, points to the Sámi term for an extreme weather phenomenon, whereby thick layers of ice form as changing conditions thaw and ice over the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary winter food, lichen. Goavvi is a result of climate change, which is taking place up to four times faster in the Far North than globally.

Previously, I visited Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a icy season and joined Sámi reindeer keepers on their motorized sleds in freezing temperatures as they hauled carts of animal nutrition on to the exposed Arctic plains to distribute manually. The reindeer surrounded round us, pawing the slippery ground in vain attempts for vegetative bits. This costly and laborious procedure is having a severe influence on herding practices—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. However the choice is starvation. When such conditions become routine, reindeer are perishing—some from lack of food, others suffocating after plunging into lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. To some extent, the art is a memorial to them. "With the layering of elements, in a way I'm bringing the condition to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Worldviews

This artwork also highlights the clear difference between the industrial interpretation of power as a commodity to be utilized for economic benefit and survival and the Sámi outlook of vitality as an natural essence in creatures, individuals, and land. Tate Modern's past as a industrial facility is connected to this, as is what the Sámi see as environmental exploitation by regional governments. As they strive to be leaders for clean sources, these states have disagreed with the Sámi over the development of wind energy projects, water power facilities, and digging operations on their native soil; the Sámi argue their human rights, incomes, and traditions are threatened. "It's hard being such a limited population to protect your rights when the reasons are based on environmental protection," Sara observes. "Extractivism has appropriated the rhetoric of sustainability, but nonetheless it's just aiming to find alternative ways to persist in patterns of consumption."

Individual Conflicts

She and her family have themselves clashed with the Norwegian government over its increasingly stringent regulations on reindeer management. Previously, Sara's brother embarked on a set of unsuccessful court actions over the mandatory slaughter of his livestock, apparently to stop excessive feeding. As a show of solidarity, Sara created a extended series of artworks named Pile O'Sápmi including a colossal drape of four hundred animal bones, which was shown at the the show Documenta 14 and later acquired by the national institution, where it is displayed in the entryway.

Art as Activism

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