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Visitors to Tate Modern are accustomed to unusual displays in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an man-made sun, slid down helter skelters, and seen AI-powered sea creatures drifting through the air. But this marks the initial time they will be engaging themselves in the detailed nasal chambers of a reindeer. The newest creative installation for this immense space—created by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes visitors into a winding design based on the scaled-up inside of a reindeer's nose airways. Inside, they can meander around or chill out on reindeer hides, tuning in on earphones to tribal seniors sharing tales and insights.

Why the Nose?

Why choose the nasal structure? It could appear whimsical, but the installation honors a obscure biological feat: experts have uncovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can heat the ambient air it inhales by 80 degrees celsius, allowing the creature to thrive in extreme Arctic climates. Enlarging the nose to larger than human size, Sara says, "produces a feeling of insignificance that you as a person are not dominant over nature." The artist is a former journalist, children's author, and environmental activist, who is from a herding family in the far north of Norway. "Perhaps that generates the possibility to alter your perspective or spark some humbleness," she adds.

A Tribute to Indigenous Heritage

The winding design is one of several features in Sara's absorbing exhibition showcasing the heritage, knowledge, and beliefs of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi total about 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an area they call Sápmi). They've faced oppression, forced assimilation, and suppression of their tongue by all four nations. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi mythology and origin tale, the work also highlights the group's challenges relating to the climate crisis, land dispossession, and imperialism.

Symbolism in Elements

Along the lengthy entrance incline, there's a looming, eighty-five-foot structure of skins entangled by electrical wires. It represents a analogy for the political and economic systems limiting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this component of the artwork, named Goavve-, relates to the Sámi word for an severe climatic event, wherein dense sheets of ice appear as varying conditions liquefy and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' main winter nourishment, lichen. Goavvi is a consequence of global heating, which is taking place up to at an accelerated rate in the Polar region than elsewhere.

Previously, I visited Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a severe cold period and went with Sámi reindeer keepers on their motorized sleds in freezing temperatures as they hauled trailers of supplementary feed on to the barren Arctic plains to distribute manually. The herd surrounded round us, scratching the slippery ground in futility for vegetative morsels. This resource-intensive and labour-intensive procedure is having a severe effect on herding practices—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. Yet the alternative is death. As goavvi winters become frequent, reindeer are perishing—a number from starvation, others drowning after plunging into lakes and rivers through prematurely melting ice. To some extent, the work is a monument to them. "Through the stacking of materials, in a way I'm transporting the condition to London," says Sara.

Diverging Perspectives

The sculpture also highlights the clear divergence between the western interpretation of electricity as a resource to be utilized for economic benefit and existence and the Sámi philosophy of vitality as an innate life force in animals, humans, and nature. Tate Modern's legacy as a fossil fuel plant is linked with this, as is what the Sámi consider environmental exploitation by Nordic countries. As they strive to be leaders for sustainable power, Scandinavian countries have locked horns with the Sámi over the building of wind energy projects, water power facilities, and mines on their traditional territory; the Sámi contend their human rights, ways of life, and culture are threatened. "It's challenging being such a tiny group to stand your ground when the justifications are rooted in saving the world," Sara comments. "Resource exploitation has appropriated the discourse of environmentalism, but nonetheless it's just striving to find more suitable ways to maintain habits of expenditure."

Personal Challenges

The artist and her relatives have personally disagreed with the Norwegian government over its ever-stricter rules on animal husbandry. A few years ago, Sara's brother initiated a series of ultimately unsuccessful legal cases over the required reduction of his livestock, supposedly to stop overgrazing. In support, Sara created a multi-year set of creations named Pile O'Sápmi comprising a massive curtain of numerous reindeer skulls, which was shown at the the event Documenta 14 and later obtained by the public gallery, where it hangs in the entrance.

Art as Awareness

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