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Attendees to the renowned gallery are familiar to surprising experiences in its spacious Turbine Hall. They've basked under an simulated sun, slid down helter skelters, and seen AI-powered sea creatures hovering through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be venturing themselves in the intricate nose passages of a reindeer. The latest artist commission for this cavernous space—designed by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—encourages patrons into a maze-like structure inspired by the scaled-up interior of a reindeer's nasal cavities. Inside, they can stroll around or chill out on reindeer hides, listening on earphones to tribal seniors sharing tales and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

Why choose the nasal structure? It could seem whimsical, but the exhibit celebrates a rarely recognized biological feat: experts have found that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can warm the incoming air it takes in by eighty degrees, helping the creature to thrive in inhospitable Arctic climates. Expanding the nose to bigger than a person, Sara explains, "generates a sense of smallness that you as a human being are not in control over nature." The artist is a ex- reporter, young adult author, and land defender, who is from a reindeer-herding family in the far north of Norway. "Maybe that fosters the chance to change your viewpoint or trigger some humbleness," she continues.

A Celebration to Indigenous Heritage

The maze-like installation is part of a components in Sara's immersive art project honoring the culture, knowledge, and worldview of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Partially migratory, the Sámi total about 100,000 people ranged across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an region they call Sápmi). They've faced discrimination, integration policies, and suppression of their language by all four states. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi cosmology and origin tale, the art also draws attention to the people's challenges associated with the climate crisis, loss of territory, and imperialism.

Metaphor in Materials

On the extended entry ramp, there's a towering, 26-meter sculpture of reindeer hides ensnared by electrical wires. It serves as a analogy for the societal frameworks limiting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part heavenly staircase, this component of the exhibit, called Goavve-, points to the Sámi name for an extreme weather phenomenon, wherein dense layers of ice appear as fluctuating conditions thaw and refreeze the snow, trapping the reindeers' main cold-season food, lichen. The condition is a result of planetary warming, which is taking place up to four times faster in the Polar region than in other regions.

Previously, I visited Sara in a remote town during a icy season and went with Sámi pastoralists on their Arctic vehicles in chilly conditions as they carried trailers of supplementary feed on to the barren tundra to provide by hand. These animals surrounded round us, digging the icy ground in vain for mossy bits. This expensive and labour-intensive method is having a drastic impact on herding practices—and on the animals' independence. But the other option is malnutrition. As these icy periods become commonplace, reindeer are perishing—a number from starvation, others submerging after sinking in water bodies through prematurely melting ice. To some extent, the installation is a memorial to them. "Through the stacking of materials, in a way I'm bringing the condition to London," says Sara.

Opposing Worldviews

This artwork also highlights the clear difference between the industrial interpretation of energy as a commodity to be harnessed for gain and existence and the Sámi outlook of vitality as an natural essence in animals, individuals, and nature. Tate Modern's history as a fossil fuel plant is connected to this, as is what the Sámi consider green colonialism by Scandinavian states. As they strive to be leaders for renewable energy, Scandinavian countries have clashed with the Sámi over the building of turbine fields, water power facilities, and extraction sites on their traditional territory; the Sámi assert their human rights, livelihoods, and way of life are at risk. "It's hard being such a tiny group to stand your ground when the justifications are based on environmental protection," Sara comments. "Resource exploitation has co-opted the rhetoric of sustainability, but yet it's just attempting to find alternative ways to maintain practices of consumption."

Individual Conflicts

Sara and her family have themselves disagreed with the state authorities over its increasingly stringent rules on animal husbandry. Previously, Sara's sibling undertook a sequence of unsuccessful legal cases over the forced culling of his animals, supposedly to stop overgrazing. In support, Sara produced a four-year collection of pieces named Pile O'Sápmi featuring a massive curtain of 400 animal bones, which was shown at the 2017's event Documenta 14 and later purchased by the National Museum of Oslo, where it resides in the entryway.

The Role of Art in Advocacy

For numerous Indigenous people, creative work is the only domain in which they can be listened to by the global community. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|