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Attendees to Tate Modern are used to unusual displays in its vast Turbine Hall. They have basked under an man-made sun, descended down spiral slides, and seen AI-powered jellyfish floating through the air. But this marks the initial time they will be engaging themselves in the intricate nose chambers of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this immense space—created by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages gallerygoers into a maze-like design inspired by the expanded inside of a reindeer's nose airways. Once inside, they can meander around or chill out on skins, tuning in on earphones to tribal seniors imparting stories and knowledge.

The Significance of the Nose

Why choose the nasal structure? It may sound quirky, but the exhibit pays tribute to a rarely recognized natural marvel: experts have discovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can warm the incoming air it breathes in by 80°C, enabling the animal to survive in extreme Arctic climates. Scaling the nose to larger than human size, Sara notes, "produces a feeling of smallness that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." She is a former writer, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who hails from a herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Perhaps that generates the possibility to shift your perspective or trigger some humbleness," she continues.

A Tribute to Indigenous Heritage

The labyrinthine structure is among various components in Sara's engaging commission celebrating the culture, knowledge, and beliefs of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi count about 100,000 people ranged across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They've endured oppression, cultural suppression, and suppression of their dialect by all four states. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi mythology and origin tale, the work also draws attention to the community's struggles associated with the environmental emergency, property rights, and colonialism.

Metaphor in Elements

Along the extended access incline, there's a towering, eighty-five-foot formation of pelts entangled by utility lines. It represents a analogy for the societal frameworks constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this part of the installation, named Goavve-, relates to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, in which dense layers of ice appear as changing weather liquefy and refreeze the snow, trapping the reindeers' main winter sustenance, moss. The condition is a consequence of global heating, which is occurring up to four times faster in the Arctic than elsewhere.

A few years back, I met with Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a goavvi winter and joined Sámi herders on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they hauled trailers of supplementary feed on to the wind-scoured tundra to provide through labor. These animals surrounded round us, scratching the slippery ground in futility for vegetative pieces. This costly and demanding method is having a significant effect on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the alternative is death. As these icy periods become commonplace, reindeer are perishing—a number from hunger, others submerging after plunging into water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. On one level, the art is a tribute to them. "Through the stacking of elements, in a way I'm bringing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Perspectives

This artwork also underscores the stark divergence between the modern understanding of electricity as a resource to be utilized for economic benefit and survival and the Sámi outlook of life force as an innate essence in animals, humans, and land. Tate Modern's history as a coal and oil power station is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi see as green colonialism by regional governments. In their efforts to be standard bearers for sustainable power, these states have locked horns with the Sámi over the construction of turbine fields, hydroelectric dams, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi assert their fundamental freedoms, ways of life, and traditions are endangered. "It's hard being such a tiny group to stand your ground when the reasons are grounded in saving the world," Sara comments. "Mining practices has appropriated the discourse of ecology, but still it's just aiming to find alternative ways to maintain habits of use."

Individual Conflicts

She and her family have personally conflicted with the state authorities over its tightening policies on reindeer management. Previously, Sara's brother undertook a set of unsuccessful lawsuits over the required reduction of his herd, apparently to stop excessive feeding. To back him, Sara produced a extended collection of creations called Pile O'Sápmi including a huge screen of numerous animal bones, which was shown at the 2017 show Documenta 14 and later purchased by the national institution, where it is displayed in the entrance.

Art as Advocacy

For many Sámi, art is the sole sphere in which they can be heard by the global community. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|