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Attendees to Tate Modern are accustomed to surprising experiences in its vast Turbine Hall. They've basked under an man-made sun, descended down helter skelters, and observed automated jellyfish drifting through the air. Yet this marks the initial time they will be immersing themselves in the intricate nasal cavities of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this immense space—designed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes patrons into a labyrinthine construction modeled after the expanded interior of a reindeer's nose passages. Once inside, they can meander around or chill out on skins, listening on headphones to Sámi elders sharing tales and insights.

The Significance of the Nose

What's the focus on the nose? It could seem quirky, but the artwork honors a rarely recognized natural marvel: researchers have discovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the surrounding air it takes in by 80 degrees celsius, enabling the creature to thrive in inhospitable Arctic conditions. Scaling the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara notes, "creates a feeling of insignificance that you as a human being are not in control over nature." She is a former writer, children's author, and environmental activist, who hails from a pastoral family in the far north of Norway. "Maybe that fosters the potential to alter your outlook or spark some humility," she adds.

A Tribute to Traditional Ways

The winding installation is part of a features in Sara's absorbing exhibition honoring the heritage, knowledge, and beliefs of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Partially migratory, the Sámi count roughly 100,000 people ranged across the Norwegian north, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an area they call Sápmi). They've endured discrimination, cultural suppression, and eradication of their tongue by all four nations. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi cosmology and founding narrative, the art also draws attention to the community's challenges associated with the environmental emergency, loss of territory, and colonialism.

Metaphor in Materials

At the extended entrance incline, there's a towering, 26-metre formation of reindeer hides entangled by utility lines. It represents a symbol for the political and economic systems constraining the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part celestial ladder, this component of the exhibit, named Goavve-, relates to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, in which thick layers of ice develop as fluctuating weather melt and solidify again the snow, encasing the reindeers' main winter sustenance, lichen. Goavvi is a outcome of global heating, which is occurring up to four times faster in the Far North than elsewhere.

A few years back, I traveled to see Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a severe cold period and joined Sámi herders on their Arctic vehicles in biting cold as they hauled containers of animal nutrition on to the exposed Arctic plains to distribute by hand. The reindeer surrounded round us, scratching the slippery ground in vain for mossy morsels. This costly and laborious procedure is having a significant influence on herding practices—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. However the choice is malnutrition. When such conditions become routine, reindeer are perishing—some from starvation, others suffocating after sinking in water bodies through thinning ice sheets. To some extent, the art is a tribute to them. "With the layering of elements, in a way I'm introducing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Perspectives

This artwork also highlights the sharp difference between the industrial interpretation of energy as a asset to be exploited for gain and existence and the Sámi worldview of energy as an natural life force in animals, individuals, and nature. The gallery's history as a coal and oil power station is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi view as eco-imperialism by regional governments. While attempting to be exemplars for clean sources, Scandinavian countries have disagreed with the Sámi over the building of turbine fields, river barriers, and digging operations on their ancestral land; the Sámi argue their fundamental freedoms, livelihoods, and way of life are threatened. "It's hard being such a tiny group to defend yourself when the justifications are grounded in global sustainability," Sara comments. "Mining practices has appropriated the discourse of environmentalism, but nonetheless it's just attempting to find alternative ways to persist in habits of expenditure."

Family Conflicts

She and her kin have themselves disagreed with the state authorities over its tightening policies on herding. A few years ago, Sara's sibling embarked on a set of unsuccessful lawsuits over the forced culling of his herd, apparently to stop excessive feeding. In support, Sara produced a extended collection of creations called Pile O'Sápmi featuring a massive curtain of 400 reindeer skulls, which was shown at the 2017's event Documenta 14 and later purchased by the public gallery, where it hangs in the lobby.

Art as Advocacy

For numerous Indigenous people, creative work appears the only domain in which they can be understood by the global community. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|