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Attendees to Tate Modern are used to unexpected encounters in its expansive Turbine Hall. They've relaxed under an man-made sun, slid down amusement rides, and witnessed automated sea creatures drifting through the air. But this marks the first time they will be immersing themselves in the intricate nose chambers of a reindeer. The latest artist commission for this immense space—developed by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—encourages patrons into a labyrinthine construction inspired by the scaled-up interior of a reindeer's nasal passages. Upon entering, they can wander around or unwind on reindeer hides, listening on earphones to Sámi elders imparting tales and insights.

Why the Nose?

What's the focus on the nose? It might seem quirky, but the exhibit pays tribute to a little-known biological feat: scientists have uncovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the ambient air it breathes in by eighty degrees, enabling the creature to thrive in inhospitable Arctic conditions. Scaling the nose to bigger than a person, Sara says, "generates a feeling of smallness that you as a individual are not superior over nature." She is a ex- reporter, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who hails from a herding family in the far north of Norway. "Maybe that fosters the possibility to alter your outlook or trigger some humility," she continues.

An Homage to Traditional Ways

The winding structure is one of several elements in Sara's engaging art project showcasing the heritage, understanding, and beliefs of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi number approximately 100,000 people spread across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an area they call Sápmi). They've experienced persecution, cultural suppression, and repression of their tongue by all four nations. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an animal at the center of the Sámi belief system and origin tale, the work also highlights the community's challenges relating to the global warming, property rights, and external control.

Meaning in Elements

Along the lengthy access slope, there's a looming, 26-metre formation of reindeer hides ensnared by electrical wires. It can be read as a symbol for the governance and financial structures constraining the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part spiritual ascent, this part of the exhibit, called Goavve-, refers to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, whereby dense sheets of ice appear as changing conditions liquefy and ice over the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary winter food, fungus. The condition is a outcome of planetary warming, which is taking place up to at an accelerated rate in the Polar region than in other regions.

Three years ago, I visited Sara in the Norwegian far north during a icy season and joined Sámi reindeer keepers on their motorized sleds in freezing temperatures as they hauled trailers of food pellets on to the barren frozen landscape to provide manually. The herd surrounded round us, pawing the frozen ground in vain attempts for vegetative morsels. This expensive and demanding method is having a significant impact on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' independence. However the choice is death. As these icy periods become routine, reindeer are succumbing—a number from hunger, others submerging after sinking in water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. To some extent, the installation is a tribute to them. "By overlapping of components, in a way I'm transporting the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Opposing Belief Systems

This artwork also highlights the sharp contrast between the modern view of energy as a resource to be utilized for gain and survival and the Sámi outlook of life force as an inherent life force in animals, people, and nature. Tate Modern's history as a coal and oil power station is connected to this, as is what the Sámi consider eco-imperialism by regional governments. In their efforts to be exemplars for clean sources, Scandinavian countries have locked horns with the Sámi over the development of windfarms, hydroelectric dams, and digging operations on their ancestral land; the Sámi argue their fundamental freedoms, ways of life, and traditions are threatened. "It's challenging being such a tiny group to stand your ground when the justifications are grounded in environmental protection," Sara comments. "Extractivism has appropriated the rhetoric of environmentalism, but nonetheless it's just aiming to find more suitable ways to continue habits of consumption."

Individual Challenges

Sara and her relatives have personally disagreed with the state authorities over its tightening rules on herding. Previously, Sara's brother embarked on a series of unsuccessful court actions over the forced culling of his animals, supposedly to stop overgrazing. To back him, Sara created a extended series of artworks called Pile O'Sápmi featuring a colossal curtain of 400 animal bones, which was shown at the 2017's event Documenta 14 and later acquired by the National Museum of Oslo, where it hangs in the entrance.

Art as Advocacy

For many Sámi, visual expression appears the exclusive domain in which they can be understood by the global community. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|