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Visitors to the renowned gallery are familiar to unusual encounters in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an simulated sun, slid down helter skelters, and seen automated jellyfish floating through the air. But this marks the first time they will be immersing themselves in the detailed nasal passages of a reindeer. The latest artistic project for this huge space—created by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—encourages visitors into a maze-like structure modeled after the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nose passages. Inside, they can meander around or chill out on reindeer hides, listening on headphones to tribal seniors sharing tales and wisdom.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why choose the nasal structure? It could appear whimsical, but the exhibit celebrates a rarely recognized biological feat: scientists have uncovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the surrounding air it breathes in by 80 degrees celsius, helping the creature to endure in harsh Arctic conditions. Enlarging the nose to bigger than a person, Sara notes, "generates a perception of insignificance that you as a individual are not superior over nature." She is a ex- journalist, writer for kids, and rights advocate, who is from a herding family in northern Norway. "Maybe that fosters the potential to change your perspective or trigger some humbleness," she continues.

A Celebration to Traditional Ways

The labyrinthine installation is one of several components in Sara's engaging exhibition showcasing the heritage, science, and beliefs of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi count approximately 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an area they call Sápmi). They've faced persecution, integration policies, and repression of their tongue by all four states. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the heart of the Sámi mythology and creation story, the work also highlights the people's struggles associated with the global warming, property rights, and imperialism.

Symbolism in Components

On the long entrance ramp, there's a looming, 26-meter formation of reindeer hides ensnared by power and light cables. It represents a symbol for the governance and financial structures restricting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part celestial ladder, this component of the exhibit, titled Goavve-, refers to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, whereby solid layers of ice develop as changing weather thaw and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' key cold-season sustenance, lichen. The condition is a result of global heating, which is happening up to much more rapidly in the Polar region than globally.

A few years back, I traveled to see Sara in a remote town during a severe cold period and joined Sámi reindeer keepers on their motorized sleds in freezing temperatures as they hauled trailers of food pellets on to the wind-scoured frozen landscape to distribute through labor. These animals gathered round us, digging the slippery ground in vain attempts for mossy bits. This resource-intensive and labour-intensive method is having a severe influence on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' natural survival. But the choice is death. When such conditions become commonplace, reindeer are dying—a number from starvation, others submerging after sinking in lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. On one level, the art is a tribute to them. "With the layering of elements, in a way I'm introducing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Diverging Worldviews

The installation also underscores the clear divergence between the modern view of power as a resource to be exploited for gain and existence and the Sámi worldview of life force as an inherent essence in creatures, people, and land. Tate Modern's legacy as a industrial facility is linked with this, as is what the Sámi view as eco-imperialism by Scandinavian states. In their efforts to be standard bearers for clean sources, Nordic nations have clashed with the Sámi over the development of turbine fields, river barriers, and mines on their traditional territory; the Sámi argue their legal protections, incomes, and culture are endangered. "It's very difficult being such a small minority to defend yourself when the reasons are grounded in global sustainability," Sara comments. "Resource exploitation has adopted the discourse of sustainability, but still it's just aiming to find better ways to maintain habits of use."

Individual Conflicts

Sara and her relatives have themselves disagreed with the state authorities over its ever-stricter regulations on reindeer management. In 2016, Sara's brother embarked on a sequence of finally failed legal cases over the forced culling of his animals, ostensibly to stop overgrazing. In support, Sara produced a extended collection of artworks named Pile O'Sápmi featuring a colossal screen of four hundred cranial remains, which was exhibited at the 2017 art exhibition Documenta 14 and later acquired by the public gallery, where it hangs in the lobby.

Art as Awareness

For many Sámi, visual expression is the exclusive sphere in which they can be heard by outsiders. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|