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Visitors to Tate Modern are accustomed to unusual displays in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an man-made sun, slid down amusement rides, and seen robotic sea creatures hovering through the air. But this marks the first time they will be immersing themselves in the intricate nose chambers of a reindeer. The newest artistic project for this huge space—created by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites visitors into a labyrinthine construction based on the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nose passages. Once inside, they can wander around or chill out on skins, listening on earphones to tribal seniors telling stories and wisdom.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

What's the focus on the nose? It might seem quirky, but the artwork pays tribute to a obscure scientific wonder: researchers have uncovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the surrounding air it takes in by 80°C, enabling the creature to survive in harsh Arctic climates. Enlarging the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara explains, "generates a sense of smallness that you as a individual are not superior over nature." The artist is a ex- reporter, children's author, and land defender, who comes from a reindeer-herding family in the far north of Norway. "Maybe that fosters the possibility to shift your outlook or spark some humility," she continues.

An Homage to Sámi Culture

The maze-like installation is one of several elements in Sara's absorbing commission honoring the heritage, understanding, and beliefs of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi number roughly 100,000 people ranged across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an area they call Sápmi). They have faced persecution, integration policies, and eradication of their tongue by all four countries. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi cosmology and founding narrative, the work also draws attention to the community's struggles associated with the climate crisis, property rights, and colonialism.

Symbolism in Components

At the long access ramp, there's a looming, 26-meter sculpture of reindeer hides entangled by utility lines. It serves as a analogy for the political and economic systems restricting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part spiritual ascent, this component of the exhibit, named Goavve-, relates to the Sámi word for an severe climatic event, whereby solid coatings of ice form as changing temperatures melt and solidify again the snow, trapping the reindeers' main winter nourishment, moss. The condition is a outcome of planetary warming, which is occurring up to much more rapidly in the Arctic than in other regions.

Previously, I visited Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a goavvi winter and accompanied Sámi herders on their Arctic vehicles in biting cold as they hauled carts of animal nutrition on to the barren Arctic plains to provide manually. These animals gathered round us, pawing the icy ground in vain for vegetative bits. This expensive and demanding procedure is having a significant effect on animal rearing—and on the animals' natural survival. But the alternative is death. As these icy periods become commonplace, reindeer are perishing—some from starvation, others suffocating after sinking in streams through prematurely melting ice. To some extent, the installation is a tribute to them. "By overlapping of elements, in a way I'm transporting the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Worldviews

The installation also underscores the stark contrast between the western understanding of power as a commodity to be exploited for gain and survival and the Sámi outlook of vitality as an natural power in animals, humans, and the environment. This venue's legacy as a fossil fuel plant is connected to this, as is what the Sámi see as green colonialism by Nordic countries. While attempting to be leaders for renewable energy, Nordic nations have disagreed with the Sámi over the construction of wind energy projects, water power facilities, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi assert their legal protections, incomes, and way of life are at risk. "It's challenging being such a small minority to defend yourself when the justifications are rooted in global sustainability," Sara notes. "Resource exploitation has co-opted the rhetoric of ecology, but nonetheless it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to continue patterns of use."

Family Struggles

Sara and her relatives have personally disagreed with the state authorities over its increasingly stringent rules on herding. Previously, Sara's brother embarked on a series of ultimately unsuccessful legal cases over the required reduction of his herd, ostensibly to stop excessive feeding. In support, Sara developed a multi-year collection of pieces called Pile O'Sápmi comprising a massive curtain of numerous cranial remains, which was displayed at the 2017 show Documenta 14 and later obtained by the National Museum of Oslo, where it is displayed in the lobby.

Creative Expression as Activism

Among the community, visual expression seems the only sphere in which they can be listened to by outsiders. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|