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Guests to Tate Modern are used to surprising experiences in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an man-made sun, slid down helter skelters, and witnessed automated sea creatures floating through the air. However this marks the inaugural time they will be immersing themselves in the detailed nasal chambers of a reindeer. The current artist commission for this cavernous space—designed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes visitors into a labyrinthine design modeled after the enlarged interior of a reindeer's nasal cavities. Once inside, they can meander around or unwind on pelts, tuning in on earphones to tribal seniors telling narratives and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

What's the focus on the nose? It may appear playful, but the installation pays tribute to a rarely recognized biological feat: experts have discovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can warm the surrounding air it inhales by 80 degrees celsius, helping the creature to endure in harsh Arctic temperatures. Expanding the nose to bigger than a person, Sara explains, "creates a perception of smallness that you as a individual are not in control over nature." Sara is a former reporter, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who hails from a pastoral family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Perhaps that fosters the possibility to change your outlook or trigger some humbleness," she continues.

A Celebration to Traditional Ways

The winding design is one of several components in Sara's immersive commission showcasing the heritage, understanding, and worldview of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Partially migratory, the Sámi total approximately 100,000 people ranged across the Norwegian north, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an area they call Sápmi). They have faced oppression, cultural suppression, and repression of their tongue by all four states. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the center of the Sámi cosmology and creation story, the installation also highlights the people's struggles relating to the global warming, property rights, and imperialism.

Symbolism in Materials

At the long access incline, there's a looming, 26-metre formation of skins ensnared by power and light cables. It represents a analogy for the societal frameworks constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part celestial ladder, this component of the artwork, named Goavve-, refers to the Sámi word for an extreme weather phenomenon, whereby dense coatings of ice form as fluctuating weather liquefy and ice over the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary winter food, fungus. The condition is a outcome of climate change, which is occurring up to at an accelerated rate in the Far North than in other regions.

Three years ago, I visited Sara in the Norwegian far north during a icy season and went with Sámi herders on their snowmobiles in chilly conditions as they carried containers of food pellets on to the exposed Arctic plains to dispense manually. The herd gathered round us, pawing the icy ground in vain attempts for lichen-covered pieces. This resource-intensive and laborious procedure is having a drastic effect on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. However the choice is death. When such conditions become commonplace, reindeer are perishing—some from hunger, others drowning after sinking in water bodies through prematurely melting ice. On one level, the installation is a memorial to them. "By overlapping of elements, in a way I'm introducing the condition to London," says Sara.

Diverging Worldviews

The installation also highlights the clear difference between the modern view of energy as a asset to be utilized for gain and survival and the Sámi worldview of vitality as an natural power in creatures, humans, and nature. The gallery's history as a coal and oil power station is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi consider environmental exploitation by Nordic countries. While attempting to be exemplars for clean sources, Nordic nations have locked horns with the Sámi over the development of turbine fields, water power facilities, and mines on their native soil; the Sámi argue their fundamental freedoms, ways of life, and traditions are at risk. "It's hard being such a small minority to protect your rights when the reasons are rooted in environmental protection," Sara comments. "Extractivism has co-opted the rhetoric of ecology, but still it's just attempting to find alternative ways to maintain practices of use."

Individual Struggles

She and her kin have themselves conflicted with the national administration over its increasingly stringent rules on herding. A few years ago, Sara's sibling initiated a series of ultimately unsuccessful legal cases over the forced culling of his animals, apparently to stop overgrazing. In support, Sara created a four-year collection of pieces called Pile O'Sápmi featuring a massive screen of 400 animal bones, which was displayed at the the show Documenta 14 and later acquired by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the entryway.

Creative Expression as Activism

Among the community, visual expression seems the exclusive sphere in which they can be listened to by outsiders. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|