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Visitors to Tate Modern are accustomed to unusual encounters in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an simulated sun, descended down helter skelters, and observed AI-powered sea creatures hovering through the air. Yet this marks the first time they will be immersing themselves in the detailed nose chambers of a reindeer. The current creative installation for this huge space—created by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—encourages patrons into a labyrinthine construction inspired by the scaled-up interior of a reindeer's nose airways. Upon entering, they can wander around or relax on skins, tuning in on earphones to tribal seniors telling tales and wisdom.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why choose the nasal structure? It may seem playful, but the exhibit honors a rarely recognized scientific wonder: experts have found that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can heat the incoming air it takes in by 80 degrees celsius, helping the animal to endure in harsh Arctic temperatures. Expanding the nose to larger than human size, Sara explains, "produces a perception of inferiority that you as a human being are not dominant over nature." The artist is a ex- reporter, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who is from a herding family in the far north of Norway. "Maybe that fosters the potential to change your outlook or trigger some modesty," she continues.

A Celebration to Sámi Culture

The maze-like design is one of several components in Sara's absorbing art project honoring the heritage, science, and philosophy of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi total roughly 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an territory they call Sápmi). They have experienced persecution, integration policies, and eradication of their dialect by all four nations. Through highlighting the reindeer, an animal at the heart of the Sámi belief system and creation story, the art also draws attention to the group's struggles relating to the climate crisis, land dispossession, and colonialism.

Symbolism in Components

On the lengthy access slope, there's a towering, eighty-five-foot structure of skins ensnared by electrical wires. It serves as a symbol for the societal frameworks constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part celestial ladder, this part of the installation, titled Goavve-, points to the Sámi name for an extreme weather phenomenon, wherein solid coatings of ice appear as changing conditions thaw and solidify again the snow, trapping the reindeers' key cold-season sustenance, moss. This phenomenon is a outcome of climate change, which is taking place up to at an accelerated rate in the Arctic than elsewhere.

A few years back, I met with Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a goavvi winter and accompanied Sámi pastoralists on their snowmobiles in freezing temperatures as they carried trailers of supplementary feed on to the exposed Arctic plains to dispense through labor. The reindeer crowded round us, pawing the icy ground in vain for vegetative pieces. This costly and laborious procedure is having a severe influence on herding practices—and on the animals' independence. But the other option is starvation. As these icy periods become routine, reindeer are dying—some from lack of food, others drowning after sinking in water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. On one level, the work is a monument to them. "With the layering of materials, in a way I'm bringing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Diverging Belief Systems

The installation also underscores the stark difference between the industrial interpretation of electricity as a resource to be harnessed for profit and livelihood and the Sámi outlook of vitality as an natural essence in animals, people, and land. The gallery's legacy as a fossil fuel plant is connected to this, as is what the Sámi view as green colonialism by Scandinavian states. While attempting to be exemplars for clean sources, Scandinavian countries have disagreed with the Sámi over the construction of wind energy projects, river barriers, and mines on their ancestral land; the Sámi argue their legal protections, livelihoods, and culture are threatened. "It's very difficult being such a small minority to defend yourself when the reasons are grounded in saving the world," Sara comments. "Extractivism has appropriated the discourse of environmentalism, but still it's just attempting to find alternative ways to maintain habits of use."

Individual Challenges

She and her family have personally conflicted with the national administration over its increasingly stringent rules on animal husbandry. A few years ago, Sara's sibling embarked on a set of ultimately unsuccessful lawsuits over the required reduction of his animals, supposedly to stop excessive feeding. As a show of solidarity, Sara produced a four-year set of artworks titled Pile O'Sápmi featuring a colossal drape of numerous cranial remains, which was exhibited at the 2017's event Documenta 14 and later obtained by the public gallery, where it resides in the entryway.

Art as Advocacy

For many Sámi, art is the exclusive realm in which they can be understood by people of other nations. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|