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Attendees to Tate Modern are familiar to unusual experiences in its vast Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an man-made sun, slid down helter skelters, and witnessed AI-powered jellyfish floating through the air. Yet this marks the first time they will be immersing themselves in the complex nose passages of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this huge space—developed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes patrons into a labyrinthine structure inspired by the expanded interior of a reindeer's nose airways. Once inside, they can wander around or unwind on pelts, listening on headphones to community leaders telling narratives and insights.

Why the Nose?

What's the focus on the nose? It may seem whimsical, but the exhibit pays tribute to a little-known natural marvel: scientists have discovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the incoming air it takes in by eighty degrees, allowing the animal to survive in harsh Arctic climates. Expanding the nose to bigger than a person, Sara says, "creates a sense of smallness that you as a human being are not dominant over nature." She is a ex- journalist, children's author, and rights advocate, who is from a pastoral family in northern Norway. "Maybe that generates the chance to change your outlook or spark some humbleness," she states.

A Tribute to Indigenous Heritage

The labyrinthine design is one of several elements in Sara's absorbing art project celebrating the heritage, understanding, and philosophy of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi count roughly 100,000 people ranged across northern Norway, Finland, Sweden, and the Kola region (an region they call Sápmi). They have experienced discrimination, forced assimilation, and eradication of their dialect by all four states. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an animal at the center of the Sámi belief system and founding narrative, the installation also spotlights the community's issues relating to the environmental emergency, loss of territory, and external control.

Metaphor in Materials

On the extended access slope, there's a soaring, 26-metre formation of reindeer hides entangled by utility lines. It represents a metaphor for the political and economic systems restricting the Sámi. Part pylon, part heavenly staircase, this part of the artwork, named Goavve-, refers to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, in which dense sheets of ice develop as varying conditions melt and ice over the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary cold-season food, moss. Goavvi is a outcome of global heating, which is occurring up to at an accelerated rate in the Arctic than globally.

Three years ago, I met with Sara in the Norwegian far north during a goavvi winter and accompanied Sámi reindeer keepers on their motorized sleds in biting cold as they carried containers of animal nutrition on to the wind-scoured frozen landscape to provide manually. These animals surrounded round us, digging the slippery ground in vain for lichen-covered morsels. This resource-intensive and labour-intensive method is having a severe effect on herding practices—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. However the choice is starvation. As these icy periods become commonplace, reindeer are succumbing—a number from starvation, others drowning after plunging into water bodies through prematurely melting ice. In a sense, the work is a memorial to them. "With the layering of materials, in a way I'm transporting the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

The sculpture also emphasizes the sharp divergence between the modern understanding of energy as a commodity to be utilized for gain and livelihood and the Sámi philosophy of energy as an natural essence in creatures, people, and nature. The gallery's history as a coal and oil power station is connected to this, as is what the Sámi see as environmental exploitation by Nordic countries. As they strive to be standard bearers for clean sources, Scandinavian countries have clashed with the Sámi over the building of wind energy projects, water power facilities, and mines on their native soil; the Sámi assert their human rights, incomes, and way of life are endangered. "It's challenging being such a small minority to stand your ground when the arguments are grounded in environmental protection," Sara observes. "Mining practices has adopted the rhetoric of ecology, but yet it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to persist in habits of expenditure."

Personal Conflicts

The artist and her relatives have personally conflicted with the Norwegian government over its ever-stricter policies on reindeer management. A few years ago, Sara's brother embarked on a set of finally failed court actions over the forced culling of his livestock, supposedly to stop excessive feeding. In support, Sara produced a extended collection of artworks titled Pile O'Sápmi featuring a huge screen of 400 reindeer skulls, which was displayed at the 2017's event Documenta 14 and later obtained by the public gallery, where it resides in the entryway.

Art as Activism

For numerous Indigenous people, visual expression appears the sole domain in which they can be understood by people of other nations. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|