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Visitors to the renowned gallery are familiar to surprising encounters in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an artificial sun, slid down helter skelters, and witnessed automated sea creatures hovering through the air. However this marks the initial time they will be immersing themselves in the detailed nasal cavities of a reindeer. The current artist commission for this cavernous space—designed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages patrons into a winding construction modeled after the scaled-up inside of a reindeer's nasal cavities. Inside, they can meander around or unwind on reindeer hides, listening on headphones to tribal seniors sharing narratives and insights.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why the nose? It may seem quirky, but the exhibit celebrates a little-known biological feat: experts have found that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the incoming air it inhales by eighty degrees, allowing the creature to endure in harsh Arctic conditions. Expanding the nose to larger than human size, Sara notes, "produces a perception of insignificance that you as a person are not superior over nature." The artist is a ex- writer, young adult author, and land defender, who comes from a reindeer-herding family in the far north of Norway. "Perhaps that generates the chance to change your outlook or spark some humbleness," she states.

An Homage to Indigenous Heritage

The winding structure is among various components in Sara's immersive exhibition honoring the heritage, knowledge, and philosophy of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Partially migratory, the Sámi number about 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an territory they call Sápmi). They have experienced persecution, integration policies, and suppression of their dialect by all four nations. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the center of the Sámi belief system and origin tale, the work also spotlights the community's struggles associated with the climate crisis, property rights, and imperialism.

Metaphor in Elements

Along the lengthy access slope, there's a looming, 26-metre sculpture of pelts ensnared by electrical wires. It represents a symbol for the governance and financial structures constraining the Sámi. Part pylon, part celestial ladder, this section of the artwork, named Goavve-, points to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, in which dense sheets of ice appear as changing conditions melt and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' primary winter sustenance, moss. The condition is a result of climate change, which is happening up to four times faster in the Polar region than globally.

A few years back, I met with Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a icy season and went with Sámi reindeer keepers on their Arctic vehicles in chilly conditions as they transported trailers of animal nutrition on to the barren frozen landscape to distribute manually. The herd crowded round us, scratching the frozen ground in futility for vegetative pieces. This costly and labour-intensive procedure is having a drastic impact on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. However the choice is malnutrition. When such conditions become routine, reindeer are succumbing—a number from lack of food, others suffocating after falling into lakes and rivers through thinning ice sheets. In a sense, the work is a monument to them. "By overlapping of components, in a way I'm introducing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Opposing Worldviews

This artwork also highlights the stark contrast between the industrial understanding of electricity as a asset to be utilized for gain and survival and the Sámi philosophy of energy as an innate essence in animals, humans, and land. Tate Modern's history as a coal and oil power station is connected to this, as is what the Sámi view as eco-imperialism by Nordic countries. While attempting to be standard bearers for sustainable power, Nordic nations have disagreed with the Sámi over the building of turbine fields, water power facilities, and mines on their native soil; the Sámi contend their legal protections, livelihoods, and way of life are at risk. "It's hard being such a small minority to protect your rights when the justifications are grounded in environmental protection," Sara observes. "Extractivism has appropriated the rhetoric of sustainability, but yet it's just aiming to find alternative ways to maintain habits of use."

Individual Challenges

She and her family have themselves conflicted with the state authorities over its increasingly stringent regulations on reindeer management. A few years ago, Sara's brother embarked on a sequence of unsuccessful lawsuits over the mandatory slaughter of his herd, apparently to stop excessive feeding. To back him, Sara created a extended set of creations called Pile O'Sápmi featuring a huge screen of four hundred cranial remains, which was displayed at the the art exhibition Documenta 14 and later acquired by the public gallery, where it hangs in the entrance.

Creative Expression as Awareness

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