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Attendees to Tate Modern are accustomed to unusual displays in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have basked under an simulated sun, descended down helter skelters, and witnessed automated jellyfish drifting through the air. But this marks the inaugural time they will be venturing themselves in the intricate nasal passages of a reindeer. The current artist commission for this immense space—developed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes visitors into a winding structure inspired by the expanded inside of a reindeer's nasal passages. Once inside, they can stroll around or unwind on skins, listening on headphones to Sámi elders telling stories and insights.

Why the Nose?

Why the nose? It could appear whimsical, but the artwork celebrates a obscure scientific wonder: researchers have discovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the incoming air it inhales by 80 degrees celsius, enabling the creature to survive in extreme Arctic temperatures. Enlarging the nose to larger than human size, Sara says, "generates a perception of insignificance that you as a human being are not in control over nature." The artist is a ex- reporter, young adult author, and rights advocate, who is from a reindeer-herding family in northern Norway. "Perhaps that creates the possibility to alter your perspective or evoke some humility," she continues.

An Homage to Traditional Ways

The maze-like structure is one of several elements in Sara's immersive exhibition honoring the heritage, understanding, and philosophy of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi number about 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an territory they call Sápmi). They've endured 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 cosmology and creation story, the installation also spotlights the community's challenges connected to the global warming, loss of territory, and colonialism.

Metaphor in Elements

Along the long entry slope, there's a soaring, 26-meter formation of skins entangled by electrical wires. It can be read as a metaphor for the societal frameworks constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this section of the installation, titled Goavve-, relates to the Sámi word for an extreme weather phenomenon, in which thick coatings of ice form as changing weather melt and ice over the snow, locking in the reindeers' key cold-season sustenance, moss. The condition is a result of climate change, which is occurring up to four times faster in the Far North than elsewhere.

A few years back, I visited Sara in the Norwegian far north during a goavvi winter and accompanied Sámi herders on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they hauled containers of food pellets on to the wind-scoured frozen landscape to distribute manually. These animals surrounded round us, digging the slippery ground in futility for vegetative morsels. This resource-intensive and labour-intensive procedure is having a significant influence on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the alternative is malnutrition. When such conditions become commonplace, reindeer are succumbing—some from starvation, others drowning after plunging into streams through thinning ice sheets. To some extent, the installation is a memorial to them. "With the layering of elements, in a way I'm transporting the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Diverging Belief Systems

The installation also underscores the sharp difference between the industrial view of electricity as a asset to be harnessed for gain and existence and the Sámi philosophy of energy as an natural life force in creatures, individuals, and land. Tate Modern's past as a coal and oil power station is linked with this, as is what the Sámi view as eco-imperialism by Scandinavian states. As they strive to be standard bearers for sustainable power, these states have locked horns with the Sámi over the construction of turbine fields, river barriers, and mines on their traditional territory; the Sámi contend their fundamental freedoms, livelihoods, and culture are threatened. "It's hard being such a small minority to stand your ground when the reasons are based on environmental protection," Sara observes. "Extractivism has adopted the language of ecology, but still it's just striving to find better ways to continue patterns of use."

Personal Challenges

The artist and her family have personally disagreed with the national administration over its tightening rules on animal husbandry. A few years ago, Sara's brother embarked on a sequence of ultimately unsuccessful court actions over the required reduction of his animals, ostensibly to stop overgrazing. In support, Sara produced a multi-year series of pieces called Pile O'Sápmi comprising a colossal curtain of 400 reindeer skulls, which was shown at the 2017 event Documenta 14 and later purchased by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the entrance.

The Role of Art in Activism

For numerous Indigenous people, art seems the sole sphere in which they can be listened to by people of other nations. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|