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Attendees to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unusual encounters in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an man-made sun, descended down spiral slides, and seen automated sea creatures floating through the air. But this marks the first time they will be engaging themselves in the complex nose chambers of a reindeer. The latest artist commission for this huge space—created by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—encourages patrons into a maze-like design based on the enlarged interior of a reindeer's nose passages. Inside, they can meander around or unwind on pelts, tuning in on headphones to Sámi elders sharing narratives and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

Why the nose? It could appear playful, but the exhibit honors a obscure scientific wonder: scientists have uncovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the surrounding air it breathes in by 80 degrees celsius, helping the animal to survive in harsh Arctic climates. Enlarging the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara says, "generates a feeling of smallness that you as a human being are not dominant over nature." She is a former writer, young adult author, and rights advocate, who comes from a herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Perhaps that fosters the possibility to alter your perspective or spark some humbleness," she states.

A Celebration to Indigenous Heritage

The winding structure is among various components in Sara's engaging exhibition showcasing the traditions, science, and beliefs of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Partially migratory, the Sámi count about 100,000 people ranged across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an territory they call Sápmi). They've experienced discrimination, forced assimilation, and repression of their tongue by all four countries. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an creature at the core of the Sámi belief system and creation story, the work also draws attention to the community's struggles relating to the global warming, loss of territory, and imperialism.

Meaning in Elements

At the long access incline, there's a soaring, eighty-five-foot formation of pelts entangled by electrical wires. It represents a metaphor for the governance and financial structures limiting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part celestial ladder, this section of the installation, named Goavve-, refers to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, wherein dense coatings of ice form as varying weather liquefy and solidify again the snow, trapping the reindeers' key cold-season nourishment, lichen. This phenomenon is a outcome of climate change, which is occurring up to four times faster in the Polar region than elsewhere.

Previously, I traveled to see Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a icy season and joined Sámi herders on their Arctic vehicles in biting cold as they hauled containers of food pellets on to the wind-scoured tundra to distribute manually. These animals gathered round us, digging the slippery ground in futility for vegetative morsels. This costly and demanding method is having a severe impact on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' independence. However the other option is malnutrition. When such conditions become routine, reindeer are dying—a number from hunger, others suffocating after falling into water bodies through prematurely melting ice. On one level, the installation is a tribute to them. "By overlapping of components, in a way I'm introducing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

This artwork also highlights the sharp difference between the western interpretation of electricity as a resource to be utilized for profit and livelihood and the Sámi worldview of life force as an inherent life force in animals, individuals, and land. Tate Modern's history as a industrial facility is connected to this, as is what the Sámi see as eco-imperialism by Nordic countries. While attempting to be leaders for clean sources, these states have disagreed with the Sámi over the development of turbine fields, river barriers, and digging operations on their ancestral land; the Sámi argue their fundamental freedoms, incomes, and way of life are at risk. "It's challenging being such a limited population to protect your rights when the justifications are rooted in global sustainability," Sara comments. "Mining practices has appropriated the language of sustainability, but nonetheless it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to maintain practices of expenditure."

Personal Challenges

She and her family have personally clashed with the state authorities over its increasingly stringent rules on animal husbandry. In 2016, Sara's brother embarked on a series of unsuccessful court actions over the required reduction of his herd, ostensibly to stop vegetation depletion. To back him, Sara created a four-year set of creations named Pile O'Sápmi comprising a colossal curtain of four hundred reindeer skulls, which was shown at the 2017 art exhibition Documenta 14 and later acquired by the National Museum of Oslo, where it is displayed in the entrance.

The Role of Art in Advocacy

For many Sámi, art appears the only domain in which they can be heard by outsiders. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|