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Attendees to Tate Modern are used to unusual displays in its vast Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an man-made sun, slid down helter skelters, and seen robotic sea creatures floating through the air. Yet this marks the initial time they will be immersing themselves in the complex nose passages of a reindeer. The latest artist commission for this immense space—designed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages patrons into a labyrinthine construction based on the scaled-up inside of a reindeer's nasal cavities. Inside, they can meander around or relax on skins, listening on earphones to Sámi elders imparting tales and knowledge.

The Significance of the Nose

Why choose the nasal structure? It may sound quirky, but the artwork pays tribute to a rarely recognized scientific wonder: experts have discovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the surrounding air it breathes in by eighty degrees, enabling the animal to endure in extreme Arctic conditions. Enlarging the nose to bigger than a person, Sara says, "generates a perception of insignificance that you as a human being are not dominant over nature." The artist is a ex- reporter, writer for kids, and land defender, who hails from a pastoral family in northern Norway. "Perhaps that generates the potential to change your viewpoint or trigger some humbleness," she continues.

A Celebration to Sámi Culture

The winding structure is one of several features in Sara's immersive commission showcasing the traditions, science, and worldview of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Partially migratory, the Sámi number approximately 100,000 people spread across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an area they call Sápmi). They have experienced oppression, cultural suppression, and repression of their language by all four countries. Through highlighting the reindeer, an animal at the center of the Sámi belief system and origin tale, the installation also spotlights the community's struggles relating to the environmental emergency, property rights, and colonialism.

Symbolism in Elements

On the lengthy entrance ramp, there's a looming, 26-metre formation of reindeer hides trapped by utility lines. It serves as a analogy for the governance and financial structures limiting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part spiritual ascent, this part of the installation, titled Goavve-, points to the Sámi term for an extreme weather phenomenon, in which solid sheets of ice form as fluctuating conditions melt and solidify again the snow, encasing the reindeers' primary cold-season nourishment, lichen. This phenomenon is a consequence of climate change, which is taking place up to much more rapidly in the Polar region than elsewhere.

A few years back, I met with Sara in the Norwegian far north during a goavvi winter and accompanied Sámi pastoralists on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they hauled trailers of animal nutrition on to the wind-scoured tundra to distribute by hand. The herd surrounded round us, digging the icy ground in futility for mossy pieces. This expensive and laborious method is having a severe influence on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. However the alternative is malnutrition. When such conditions become routine, reindeer are dying—some from lack of food, others drowning after plunging into water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. In a sense, the installation is a memorial to them. "With the layering of materials, in a way I'm introducing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Worldviews

This artwork also underscores the clear difference between the western interpretation of electricity as a resource to be harnessed for economic benefit and survival and the Sámi philosophy of life force as an natural life force in animals, individuals, and land. This venue's history as a fossil fuel plant is connected to this, as is what the Sámi consider green colonialism by Scandinavian states. While attempting to be leaders for renewable energy, Nordic nations have disagreed with the Sámi over the development of windfarms, river barriers, and extraction sites on their traditional territory; the Sámi assert their human rights, ways of life, and traditions are endangered. "It's hard being such a small minority to protect your rights when the justifications are based on global sustainability," Sara comments. "Resource exploitation has adopted the rhetoric of sustainability, but nonetheless it's just striving to find alternative ways to maintain patterns of use."

Personal Challenges

The artist and her family have personally disagreed with the national administration over its ever-stricter rules on herding. In 2016, Sara's brother undertook a series of finally failed court actions over the mandatory slaughter of his animals, ostensibly to stop overgrazing. In support, Sara created a multi-year set of pieces called Pile O'Sápmi including a massive screen of 400 reindeer skulls, which was shown at the the art exhibition Documenta 14 and later acquired by the National Museum of Oslo, where it hangs in the entryway.

The Role of Art in Awareness

Among the community, art is the sole domain in which they can be listened to by people of other nations. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|