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Guests to the renowned gallery are familiar to unexpected experiences in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have basked under an artificial sun, descended down spiral slides, and witnessed automated jellyfish drifting through the air. Yet this marks the initial time they will be immersing themselves in the detailed nose passages of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this huge space—developed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages gallerygoers into a maze-like construction inspired by the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nose passages. Inside, they can meander around or unwind on reindeer hides, listening on headphones to community leaders sharing stories and wisdom.

Why the Nose?

Why choose the nasal structure? It could seem playful, but the exhibit pays tribute to a little-known scientific wonder: scientists have uncovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the surrounding air it breathes in by eighty degrees, enabling the animal to endure in harsh Arctic conditions. Enlarging the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara explains, "produces a sense of inferiority that you as a person are not in control over nature." The artist is a ex- reporter, writer for kids, and rights advocate, who comes from a herding family in the far north of Norway. "Possibly that fosters the chance to alter your viewpoint or spark some modesty," she continues.

A Celebration to Indigenous Heritage

The labyrinthine installation is among various elements in Sara's engaging commission celebrating the traditions, understanding, and worldview of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi count about 100,000 people ranged across the Norwegian north, Finland, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an area they call Sápmi). They have endured persecution, forced assimilation, and eradication of their tongue by all four countries. Through highlighting the reindeer, an animal at the core of the Sámi mythology and origin tale, the work also draws attention to the people's struggles associated with the environmental emergency, property rights, and colonialism.

Symbolism in Materials

On the lengthy access ramp, there's a soaring, 26-meter formation of skins ensnared by electrical wires. It represents a metaphor for the political and economic systems constraining the Sámi. Part pylon, part heavenly staircase, this component of the artwork, named Goavve-, points to the Sámi word for an severe climatic event, whereby thick layers of ice form as fluctuating temperatures thaw and solidify again the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary winter nourishment, moss. Goavvi is a result of planetary warming, which is taking place up to at an accelerated rate in the Arctic than elsewhere.

Previously, I traveled to see Sara in a remote town during a goavvi winter and went with Sámi reindeer keepers on their motorized sleds in biting cold as they carried carts of supplementary feed on to the barren frozen landscape to provide manually. These animals surrounded round us, pawing the icy ground in vain attempts for vegetative pieces. This costly and laborious method is having a significant impact on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. Yet the other option is malnutrition. As these icy periods become routine, reindeer are succumbing—some from lack of food, others submerging after plunging into water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. To some extent, the art is a memorial to them. "By overlapping of components, in a way I'm introducing the condition to London," says Sara.

Diverging Belief Systems

The installation also highlights the clear contrast between the modern interpretation of electricity as a commodity to be harnessed for gain and existence and the Sámi worldview of vitality as an inherent power in animals, individuals, and nature. Tate Modern's past as a industrial facility is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi see as eco-imperialism by Nordic countries. As they strive to be standard bearers for sustainable power, Nordic nations have disagreed with the Sámi over the development of windfarms, water power facilities, and extraction sites on their native soil; the Sámi argue their legal protections, livelihoods, and way of life are endangered. "It's very difficult being such a limited population to stand your ground when the reasons are rooted in environmental protection," Sara observes. "Resource exploitation has co-opted the language of ecology, but nonetheless it's just attempting to find better ways to continue patterns of expenditure."

Individual Struggles

Sara and her relatives have personally conflicted with the state authorities over its ever-stricter rules on herding. A few years ago, Sara's sibling embarked on a sequence of unsuccessful lawsuits over the forced culling of his herd, ostensibly to stop overgrazing. To back him, Sara produced a extended collection of creations called Pile O'Sápmi including a huge screen of numerous animal bones, which was shown at the 2017's art exhibition Documenta 14 and later acquired by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the entrance.

Art as Awareness

For many Sámi, visual expression is the sole realm in which they can be listened to by outsiders. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|