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Attendees to the renowned gallery are familiar to surprising displays in its vast Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an artificial sun, descended down spiral slides, and witnessed robotic jellyfish drifting through the air. However this marks the first time they will be engaging themselves in the complex nasal chambers of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this immense space—developed by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites gallerygoers into a labyrinthine structure based on the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nasal passages. Upon entering, they can meander around or unwind on reindeer hides, tuning in on earphones to tribal seniors sharing stories and insights.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why choose the nasal structure? It may appear quirky, but the artwork pays tribute to a obscure scientific wonder: scientists have found that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the surrounding air it inhales by 80°C, helping the animal to endure in extreme Arctic temperatures. Expanding the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara says, "creates a feeling of insignificance that you as a human being are not in control over nature." She is a former reporter, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who is from a reindeer-herding family in the far north of Norway. "Possibly that creates the possibility to change your perspective or spark some humbleness," she adds.

A Celebration to Sámi Culture

The maze-like design is among various features in Sara's engaging commission celebrating the traditions, understanding, and beliefs of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi total roughly 100,000 people spread across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an region they call Sápmi). They've experienced discrimination, forced assimilation, and suppression of their dialect by all four countries. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an animal at the center of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the art also draws attention to the group's challenges relating to the global warming, loss of territory, and colonialism.

Metaphor in Elements

On the long entrance ramp, there's a soaring, eighty-five-foot structure of pelts entangled by power and light cables. It can be read as a symbol for the political and economic systems restricting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part heavenly staircase, this part of the artwork, called Goavve-, points to the Sámi term for an extreme weather phenomenon, wherein dense coatings of ice form as varying conditions thaw and refreeze the snow, encasing the reindeers' main cold-season nourishment, moss. This phenomenon is a result of planetary warming, which is happening up to four times faster in the Far North than elsewhere.

Previously, I traveled to see Sara in the Norwegian far north during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi herders on their snowmobiles in biting cold as they hauled trailers of animal nutrition on to the wind-scoured tundra to provide through labor. These animals gathered round us, pawing the slippery ground in vain for mossy bits. This resource-intensive and demanding process is having a severe influence on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' independence. Yet the choice is starvation. When such conditions become frequent, reindeer are succumbing—a number from lack of food, others submerging after plunging into streams through unstable frozen surfaces. To some extent, the work is a memorial to them. "With the layering of components, in a way I'm transporting the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Belief Systems

The installation also highlights the clear contrast between the western understanding of power as a resource to be utilized for profit and livelihood and the Sámi outlook of life force as an innate essence in animals, humans, and nature. Tate Modern's past as a fossil fuel plant is connected to this, as is what the Sámi consider green colonialism by regional governments. In their efforts to be standard bearers for sustainable power, Scandinavian countries have disagreed with the Sámi over the construction of wind energy projects, river barriers, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi assert their legal protections, livelihoods, and traditions are at risk. "It's challenging being such a small minority to defend yourself when the arguments are based on environmental protection," Sara notes. "Extractivism has adopted the rhetoric of sustainability, but nonetheless it's just striving to find more suitable ways to persist in patterns of consumption."

Individual Challenges

She and her relatives have themselves conflicted with the Norwegian government over its increasingly stringent policies on herding. A few years ago, Sara's sibling embarked on a sequence of finally failed legal cases over the required reduction of his animals, apparently to stop vegetation depletion. In support, Sara developed a multi-year collection of pieces named Pile O'Sápmi featuring a colossal drape of numerous reindeer skulls, which was exhibited at the 2017 art exhibition Documenta 14 and later acquired by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the entryway.

Art as Advocacy

For numerous Indigenous people, visual expression seems the only domain in which they can be understood by the global community. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|