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Visitors to Tate Modern are accustomed to unusual experiences in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have basked under an man-made sun, glided down spiral slides, and witnessed AI-powered sea creatures hovering through the air. But this marks the initial time they will be venturing themselves in the complex nasal passages of a reindeer. The current creative installation for this immense space—created by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites patrons into a labyrinthine design inspired by the expanded interior of a reindeer's nose cavities. Upon entering, they can meander around or relax on reindeer hides, listening on earphones to community leaders imparting stories and wisdom.

Why the Nose?

What's the focus on the nose? It might sound quirky, but the exhibit pays tribute to a little-known natural marvel: scientists have found that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the surrounding air it takes in by 80°C, helping the creature to survive in inhospitable Arctic climates. Scaling the nose to larger than human size, Sara says, "generates a sense of insignificance that you as a human being are not in control over nature." The artist is a former journalist, young adult author, and environmental activist, who hails from a reindeer-herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Possibly that creates the chance to change your perspective or evoke some humility," she states.

A Tribute to Traditional Ways

The maze-like design is one of several features in Sara's engaging exhibition showcasing the heritage, knowledge, and worldview of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi number approximately 100,000 people spread across the Norwegian north, Finland, Sweden, and the Kola region (an region they call Sápmi). They've experienced persecution, cultural suppression, and eradication of their tongue by all four states. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the heart of the Sámi mythology and origin tale, the art also draws attention to the group's issues associated with the environmental emergency, land dispossession, and colonialism.

Meaning in Components

At the long entrance ramp, there's a looming, 26-metre structure of pelts trapped by electrical wires. It can be read as a analogy for the political and economic systems constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part celestial ladder, this component of the installation, named Goavve-, refers to the Sámi name for an extreme weather phenomenon, in which solid layers of ice appear as fluctuating weather liquefy and refreeze the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary cold-season food, moss. Goavvi is a outcome of global heating, which is taking place up to much more rapidly in the Polar region than elsewhere.

Three years ago, I visited Sara in a remote town during a severe cold period and went with Sámi herders on their Arctic vehicles in biting cold as they transported containers of supplementary feed on to the barren Arctic plains to dispense manually. These animals gathered round us, digging the icy ground in futility for mossy pieces. This resource-intensive and laborious procedure is having a severe impact on animal rearing—and on the animals' independence. However the other option is starvation. As these icy periods become commonplace, reindeer are dying—a number from hunger, others submerging after plunging into water bodies through prematurely melting ice. To some extent, the art is a tribute to them. "By overlapping of elements, in a way I'm transporting the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

The sculpture also emphasizes the stark difference between the modern understanding of electricity as a resource to be exploited for gain and existence and the Sámi philosophy of life force as an inherent power in creatures, people, and nature. The gallery's history as a fossil fuel plant is connected to this, as is what the Sámi see as environmental exploitation by regional governments. In their efforts to be leaders for clean sources, Scandinavian countries have locked horns with the Sámi over the construction of turbine fields, hydroelectric dams, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi contend their legal protections, livelihoods, and traditions are threatened. "It's challenging being such a tiny group to defend yourself when the reasons are grounded in environmental protection," Sara notes. "Extractivism has appropriated the rhetoric of sustainability, but still it's just attempting to find better ways to continue practices of expenditure."

Family Struggles

She and her relatives have personally conflicted with the state authorities over its tightening regulations on animal husbandry. A few years ago, Sara's sibling initiated a sequence of unsuccessful court actions over the mandatory slaughter of his livestock, apparently to stop excessive feeding. To back him, Sara created a extended set of pieces called Pile O'Sápmi including a massive screen of numerous animal bones, which was shown at the the show Documenta 14 and later acquired by the National Museum of Oslo, where it resides in the entrance.

The Role of Art in Advocacy

Among the community, creative work seems the sole sphere in which they can be heard by people of other nations. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|