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Visitors to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unusual displays in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have basked under an simulated sun, slid down spiral slides, and observed AI-powered jellyfish floating through the air. But this marks the initial time they will be engaging themselves in the detailed nasal passages of a reindeer. The current artistic project for this immense space—created by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites gallerygoers into a labyrinthine structure modeled after the scaled-up interior of a reindeer's nasal airways. Upon entering, they can meander around or unwind on skins, listening on headphones to community leaders imparting narratives and wisdom.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why choose the nasal structure? It might appear whimsical, but the exhibit celebrates a little-known biological feat: scientists have found that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can warm the incoming air it inhales by 80°C, enabling the creature to endure in harsh Arctic climates. Expanding the nose to bigger than a person, Sara notes, "creates a feeling of inferiority that you as a human being are not in control over nature." She is a former journalist, young adult author, and rights advocate, who is from a pastoral family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Maybe that creates the possibility to shift your outlook or spark some modesty," she adds.

A Celebration to Traditional Ways

The labyrinthine structure is among various components in Sara's immersive exhibition celebrating the traditions, science, and worldview of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Partially migratory, the Sámi count approximately 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an area they call Sápmi). They have faced discrimination, integration policies, and eradication of their tongue by all four countries. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an animal at the core of the Sámi belief system and creation story, the installation also highlights the community's challenges connected to the environmental emergency, land dispossession, and external control.

Metaphor in Materials

At the lengthy entry ramp, there's a soaring, 26-metre structure of pelts trapped by utility lines. It serves as a analogy for the governance and financial structures limiting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part heavenly staircase, this section of the exhibit, titled Goavve-, refers to the Sámi name for an extreme weather phenomenon, whereby thick sheets of ice appear as changing weather thaw and solidify again the snow, encasing the reindeers' primary cold-season food, moss. Goavvi is a outcome of global heating, which is happening up to much more rapidly in the Arctic than globally.

Previously, I visited Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a goavvi winter and went with Sámi herders on their snowmobiles in chilly conditions as they carried trailers of supplementary feed on to the barren frozen landscape to dispense through labor. These animals crowded round us, pawing the slippery ground in vain for vegetative bits. This costly and labour-intensive process is having a drastic impact on animal rearing—and on the animals' independence. But the other option is starvation. As goavvi winters become routine, reindeer are dying—a number from hunger, others drowning after sinking in lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. On one level, the art is a memorial to them. "With the layering of materials, in a way I'm transporting the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Perspectives

This artwork also highlights the stark contrast between the modern understanding of power as a resource to be harnessed for gain and existence and the Sámi philosophy of energy as an inherent life force in animals, humans, and nature. Tate Modern's history as a coal and oil power station is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi view as environmental exploitation by Scandinavian states. As they strive to be exemplars for clean sources, Scandinavian countries have locked horns with the Sámi over the development of turbine fields, water power facilities, and mines on their ancestral land; the Sámi assert their fundamental freedoms, ways of life, and way of life are at risk. "It's challenging being such a tiny group to defend yourself when the justifications are rooted in saving the world," Sara notes. "Mining practices has co-opted the language of ecology, but yet it's just striving to find alternative ways to maintain practices of consumption."

Family Struggles

The artist and her family have personally clashed with the Norwegian government over its tightening regulations on herding. In 2016, Sara's brother embarked on a series of unsuccessful lawsuits over the forced culling of his herd, supposedly to stop excessive feeding. In support, Sara created a extended set of creations titled Pile O'Sápmi including a huge drape of four hundred animal bones, which was shown at the 2017's event Documenta 14 and later purchased by the national institution, where it hangs in the entryway.

The Role of Art in Awareness

For many Sámi, creative work is the exclusive realm in which they can be understood by the global community. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|