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Attendees to Tate Modern are familiar to unusual encounters in its expansive Turbine Hall. They've relaxed under an man-made sun, slid down spiral slides, and witnessed robotic sea creatures drifting through the air. However this marks the first time they will be immersing themselves in the complex nasal cavities of a reindeer. The newest creative installation for this huge space—designed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—invites visitors into a labyrinthine structure inspired by the scaled-up inside of a reindeer's nasal airways. Upon entering, they can wander around or chill out on skins, tuning in on headphones to tribal seniors imparting tales and knowledge.

The Significance of the Nose

What's the focus on the nose? It may sound whimsical, but the installation celebrates a little-known scientific wonder: researchers have found that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the surrounding air it breathes in by 80 degrees celsius, allowing the animal to survive in harsh Arctic conditions. Scaling the nose to larger than human size, Sara explains, "generates a feeling of insignificance that you as a human being are not in control over nature." The artist is a ex- writer, writer for kids, and land defender, who comes from a reindeer-herding family in the far north of Norway. "Perhaps that creates the chance to shift your outlook or spark some humbleness," she adds.

A Celebration to Indigenous Heritage

The winding structure is one of several elements in Sara's immersive commission celebrating the traditions, science, 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 Russian Arctic (an area they call Sápmi). They've experienced persecution, integration policies, and suppression of their tongue by all four nations. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the core of the Sámi cosmology and creation story, the art also spotlights the people's challenges associated with the environmental emergency, loss of territory, and colonialism.

Meaning in Materials

Along the extended entry incline, there's a towering, 26-metre formation of reindeer hides ensnared by utility lines. It can be read as a analogy for the governance and financial structures restricting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part heavenly staircase, this section of the artwork, named Goavve-, relates to the Sámi name for an extreme weather phenomenon, wherein thick coatings of ice develop as fluctuating temperatures liquefy and solidify again the snow, trapping the reindeers' main winter food, lichen. Goavvi is a consequence of climate change, which is taking place up to much more rapidly in the Far North than globally.

Three years ago, I visited Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a severe cold period and joined Sámi pastoralists on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they hauled trailers of food pellets on to the wind-scoured tundra to distribute manually. The reindeer surrounded round us, digging the icy ground in futility for mossy pieces. This resource-intensive and demanding procedure is having a drastic influence on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the choice is starvation. As these icy periods become frequent, reindeer are dying—a number from starvation, others drowning after falling into streams through thinning ice sheets. In a sense, the work is a monument to them. "By overlapping of elements, in a way I'm transporting the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Perspectives

This artwork also emphasizes the clear difference between the modern understanding of electricity as a asset to be utilized for gain and existence and the Sámi philosophy of vitality as an innate essence in animals, individuals, and the environment. The gallery's legacy as a industrial facility is linked with this, as is what the Sámi see as environmental exploitation by Nordic countries. In their efforts to be standard bearers for renewable energy, these states have disagreed with the Sámi over the construction of wind energy projects, water power facilities, and mines on their ancestral land; the Sámi contend their legal protections, livelihoods, and way of life are endangered. "It's challenging being such a tiny group to defend yourself when the arguments are grounded in saving the world," Sara notes. "Extractivism has co-opted the language of environmentalism, but yet it's just attempting to find alternative ways to persist in habits of use."

Individual Challenges

The artist and her family have personally conflicted with the national administration over its ever-stricter policies on herding. In 2016, Sara's sibling undertook a set of finally failed legal cases over the required reduction of his herd, ostensibly to stop excessive feeding. As a show of solidarity, Sara created a extended series of pieces named Pile O'Sápmi including a huge curtain of 400 cranial remains, which was exhibited at the the show Documenta 14 and later acquired by the National Museum of Oslo, where it is displayed in the entrance.

Art as Advocacy

Among the community, creative work seems the only realm in which they can be listened to by outsiders. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|