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Attendees to the renowned gallery are used to unusual experiences in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have basked under an simulated sun, glided down spiral slides, and observed AI-powered jellyfish floating through the air. But this marks the initial time they will be venturing themselves in the intricate nose cavities of a reindeer. The newest artistic project for this cavernous space—created by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes gallerygoers into a winding construction based on the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nose passages. Upon entering, they can wander around or unwind on pelts, listening on headphones to tribal seniors telling stories and wisdom.

The Significance of the Nose

What's the focus on the nose? It could sound playful, but the artwork pays tribute to a obscure biological feat: experts have found that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can heat the ambient air it takes in by 80 degrees celsius, allowing the creature to endure in extreme Arctic temperatures. Enlarging the nose to bigger than a person, Sara says, "generates a sense of inferiority that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." Sara is a ex- writer, young adult author, and environmental activist, who hails from a herding family in northern Norway. "Possibly that fosters the possibility to change your perspective or evoke some modesty," she continues.

An Homage to Sámi Culture

The maze-like design is among various elements in Sara's engaging exhibition showcasing the heritage, understanding, and worldview of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Partially migratory, the Sámi number roughly 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an territory they call Sápmi). They've faced persecution, cultural suppression, and eradication of their language by all four nations. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the core of the Sámi cosmology and creation story, the art also draws attention to the community's struggles associated with the environmental emergency, land dispossession, and external control.

Meaning in Materials

On the extended entrance ramp, there's a towering, eighty-five-foot formation of reindeer hides ensnared by electrical wires. It can be read as a symbol for the societal frameworks restricting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part celestial ladder, this part of the exhibit, named Goavve-, refers to the Sámi word for an severe climatic event, in which solid sheets of ice form as fluctuating temperatures thaw and solidify again the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary cold-season food, moss. Goavvi is a result of climate change, which is taking place up to four times faster in the Arctic than in other regions.

Previously, I visited Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a severe cold period and went with Sámi pastoralists on their Arctic vehicles in biting cold as they carried containers of food pellets on to the barren frozen landscape to provide through labor. The reindeer crowded round us, scratching the slippery ground in futility for vegetative bits. This costly and labour-intensive method is having a significant effect on herding practices—and on the animals' independence. Yet the choice is starvation. As these icy periods become routine, reindeer are succumbing—some from starvation, others suffocating after plunging into lakes and rivers through prematurely melting ice. To some extent, the work is a monument to them. "With the layering of elements, in a way I'm introducing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Diverging Perspectives

The sculpture also emphasizes the sharp difference between the modern interpretation of energy as a commodity to be exploited for economic benefit and survival and the Sámi philosophy of energy as an inherent power in animals, humans, and nature. Tate Modern's history as a coal and oil power station is connected to this, as is what the Sámi see as green colonialism by Scandinavian states. As they strive to be leaders for clean sources, these states have clashed with the Sámi over the development of turbine fields, river barriers, and mines on their native soil; the Sámi assert their legal protections, livelihoods, and way of life are at risk. "It's challenging being such a limited population to defend yourself when the arguments are rooted in global sustainability," Sara notes. "Mining practices has adopted the language of sustainability, but still it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to maintain practices of consumption."

Personal Struggles

The artist and her relatives have themselves disagreed with the Norwegian government over its increasingly stringent rules on reindeer management. In 2016, Sara's brother undertook a series of unsuccessful lawsuits over the forced culling of his animals, supposedly to stop excessive feeding. As a show of solidarity, Sara created a extended collection of pieces called Pile O'Sápmi comprising a huge curtain of numerous cranial remains, which was displayed at the the event Documenta 14 and later purchased by the national institution, where it is displayed in the entryway.

Creative Expression as Activism

For numerous Indigenous people, creative work appears the sole sphere in which they can be understood by people of other nations. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|