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Visitors to Tate Modern are accustomed to surprising experiences in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an man-made sun, descended down amusement rides, and seen AI-powered jellyfish floating through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be venturing themselves in the detailed nose chambers of a reindeer. The current artist commission for this huge space—created by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites visitors into a winding structure modeled after the scaled-up inside of a reindeer's nasal airways. Upon entering, they can meander around or chill out on reindeer hides, tuning in on earphones to community leaders telling narratives and wisdom.

Why the Nose?

Why choose the nasal structure? It might seem whimsical, but the artwork pays tribute to a rarely recognized scientific wonder: experts have found that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the ambient air it inhales by eighty degrees, enabling the creature to endure in inhospitable Arctic temperatures. Scaling the nose to bigger than a person, Sara explains, "produces a perception of inferiority that you as a individual are not in control over nature." The artist is a ex- writer, writer for kids, and land defender, who is from a reindeer-herding family in the far north of Norway. "Possibly that fosters the chance to shift your viewpoint or evoke some humility," she adds.

A Tribute to Indigenous Heritage

The labyrinthine installation is one of several components in Sara's immersive art project celebrating the traditions, understanding, and beliefs of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi number approximately 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an area they call Sápmi). They have experienced oppression, cultural suppression, and suppression of their language by all four countries. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi belief system and origin tale, the work also draws attention to the people's struggles associated with the environmental emergency, loss of territory, and colonialism.

Symbolism in Components

At the extended access slope, there's a towering, 26-meter structure of pelts ensnared by utility lines. It represents a symbol for the governance and financial structures limiting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part celestial ladder, this part of the installation, named Goavve-, relates to the Sámi word for an extreme weather phenomenon, whereby dense sheets of ice form as changing temperatures melt and ice over the snow, encasing the reindeers' primary cold-season sustenance, fungus. This phenomenon is a consequence of climate change, which is happening up to at an accelerated rate in the Arctic than globally.

Three years ago, I traveled to see Sara in the Norwegian far north during a icy season and joined Sámi reindeer keepers on their motorized sleds in freezing temperatures as they transported trailers of animal nutrition on to the wind-scoured frozen landscape to dispense by hand. The herd surrounded round us, scratching the icy ground in vain attempts for mossy bits. This resource-intensive and laborious method is having a significant effect on animal rearing—and on the animals' independence. However the choice is malnutrition. When such conditions become routine, reindeer are perishing—some from hunger, others drowning after plunging into streams through prematurely melting ice. To some extent, the work is a tribute to them. "Through the stacking of materials, in a way I'm bringing the condition to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Worldviews

This artwork also highlights the stark contrast between the industrial view of electricity as a asset to be utilized for gain and existence and the Sámi worldview of energy as an innate essence in animals, people, and the environment. This venue's legacy as a coal and oil power station is connected to this, as is what the Sámi view as green colonialism by Nordic countries. As they strive to be leaders for clean sources, these states have clashed with the Sámi over the development of wind energy projects, hydroelectric dams, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi argue their fundamental freedoms, livelihoods, and culture are threatened. "It's very difficult being such a limited population to stand your ground when the arguments are based on environmental protection," Sara observes. "Mining practices has appropriated the language of sustainability, but still it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to maintain practices of consumption."

Family Challenges

The artist and her relatives have personally disagreed with the national administration over its increasingly stringent policies on herding. A few years ago, Sara's sibling undertook a series of unsuccessful court actions over the required reduction of his animals, supposedly to stop vegetation depletion. As a show of solidarity, Sara developed a multi-year series of pieces named Pile O'Sápmi including a colossal screen of 400 reindeer skulls, which was displayed at the the event Documenta 14 and later acquired by the National Museum of Oslo, where it hangs in the lobby.

Creative Expression as Advocacy

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