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Guests to Tate Modern are used to unusual displays in its spacious Turbine Hall. They've relaxed under an man-made sun, descended down amusement rides, and observed automated sea creatures floating through the air. However this marks the first time they will be immersing themselves in the intricate nasal passages of a reindeer. The current artist commission for this cavernous space—developed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages gallerygoers into a maze-like structure modeled after the expanded inside of a reindeer's nose passages. Upon entering, they can wander around or relax on skins, tuning in on headphones to Sámi elders imparting narratives and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

Why choose the nasal structure? It may sound whimsical, but the installation pays tribute to a little-known biological feat: scientists have found that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the surrounding air it takes in by eighty degrees, helping the animal to endure in extreme Arctic temperatures. Enlarging the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara says, "produces a sense of inferiority that you as a person are not superior over nature." She is a ex- reporter, young adult author, and rights advocate, who comes from a herding family in northern Norway. "Perhaps that creates the possibility to shift your viewpoint or spark some humility," she continues.

A Celebration to Sámi Culture

The labyrinthine installation is among various elements in Sara's immersive exhibition honoring the heritage, knowledge, and worldview of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi count roughly 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They've experienced oppression, forced assimilation, and suppression of their tongue by all four nations. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the core of the Sámi cosmology and creation story, the art also draws attention to the group's struggles relating to the global warming, land dispossession, and external control.

Meaning in Components

Along the extended entry slope, there's a towering, eighty-five-foot formation of pelts ensnared by power and light cables. It serves as a metaphor for the political and economic systems limiting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this part of the artwork, named Goavve-, refers to the Sámi word for an harsh environmental condition, in which dense coatings of ice form as fluctuating temperatures thaw and solidify again the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary cold-season food, moss. Goavvi is a result of planetary warming, which is happening up to much more rapidly in the Arctic than elsewhere.

A few years back, I visited Sara in a remote town during a goavvi winter and went with Sámi herders on their snowmobiles in biting cold as they hauled carts of food pellets on to the exposed frozen landscape to provide manually. The herd gathered round us, digging the slippery ground in vain attempts for mossy bits. This resource-intensive and labour-intensive method is having a significant influence on animal rearing—and on the animals' independence. But the other option is death. When such conditions become frequent, reindeer are succumbing—some from hunger, others submerging after sinking in lakes and rivers through prematurely melting ice. In a sense, the work is a monument to them. "Through the stacking of elements, in a way I'm transporting the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

The sculpture also emphasizes the clear contrast between the modern interpretation of electricity as a commodity to be harnessed for gain and livelihood and the Sámi worldview of vitality as an natural essence in animals, people, and the environment. This venue's history as a fossil fuel plant is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi see as green colonialism by Scandinavian states. While attempting to be exemplars for sustainable power, Nordic nations have clashed with the Sámi over the development of turbine fields, river barriers, and mines on their traditional territory; the Sámi assert their human rights, ways of life, and traditions are endangered. "It's hard being such a small minority to protect your rights when the justifications are rooted in environmental protection," Sara notes. "Resource exploitation has adopted the discourse of sustainability, but nonetheless it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to maintain patterns of consumption."

Personal Struggles

She and her kin have themselves disagreed with the national administration over its ever-stricter rules on animal husbandry. Previously, Sara's brother undertook a series of finally failed lawsuits over the required reduction of his livestock, supposedly to stop overgrazing. As a show of solidarity, Sara produced a four-year collection of pieces called Pile O'Sápmi including a huge screen of four hundred animal bones, which was exhibited at the the show Documenta 14 and later acquired by the National Museum of Oslo, where it resides in the entryway.

Art as Advocacy

For many Sámi, art is the only sphere in which they can be understood by outsiders. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|