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Guests to the renowned gallery are familiar to surprising encounters in its expansive Turbine Hall. They've sunbathed under an man-made sun, glided down amusement rides, and seen robotic sea creatures hovering through the air. However this marks the first time they will be venturing themselves in the complex nasal cavities of a reindeer. The latest creative installation for this cavernous space—designed by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes gallerygoers into a winding structure modeled after the scaled-up interior of a reindeer's nose passages. Once inside, they can wander around or relax on skins, tuning in on headphones to community leaders sharing narratives and knowledge.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why the nose? It might sound playful, but the installation honors a rarely recognized natural marvel: experts have uncovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the incoming air it takes in by 80°C, helping the creature to thrive in harsh Arctic conditions. Enlarging the nose to larger than human size, Sara explains, "generates a perception of insignificance that you as a person are not in control over nature." She is a former journalist, children's author, and environmental activist, who is from a reindeer-herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Perhaps that creates the possibility to alter your outlook or evoke some humbleness," she adds.

A Celebration to Indigenous Heritage

The winding structure is one of several components in Sara's engaging exhibition honoring the heritage, science, and worldview of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi count approximately 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, Finland, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an region they call Sápmi). They have endured persecution, integration policies, and eradication of their language by all four states. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the core of the Sámi mythology and origin tale, the art also highlights the people's challenges connected to the climate crisis, loss of territory, and external control.

Symbolism in Elements

At the long entrance ramp, there's a towering, 26-meter formation of skins entangled by electrical wires. It serves as a analogy for the governance and financial structures restricting the Sámi. Part pylon, part celestial ladder, this section of the exhibit, called Goavve-, relates to the Sámi name for an severe climatic event, whereby thick coatings of ice appear as changing conditions liquefy and ice over the snow, encasing the reindeers' key winter nourishment, lichen. The condition is a result of climate change, which is occurring up to at an accelerated rate in the Arctic than globally.

Three years ago, I visited Sara in the Norwegian far north during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi pastoralists on their Arctic vehicles in biting cold as they hauled containers of animal nutrition on to the barren frozen landscape to distribute manually. These animals crowded round us, pawing the frozen ground in vain attempts for lichen-covered morsels. This costly and demanding method is having a significant impact on herding practices—and on the animals' independence. However the alternative is malnutrition. As goavvi winters become commonplace, reindeer are dying—some from starvation, others drowning after sinking in water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. In a sense, the art is a monument to them. "Through the stacking of components, in a way I'm introducing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Diverging Perspectives

The sculpture also underscores the sharp difference between the industrial understanding of electricity as a asset to be utilized for gain and existence and the Sámi philosophy of energy as an innate essence in creatures, humans, and land. Tate Modern's history as a industrial facility is linked with this, as is what the Sámi see as eco-imperialism by regional governments. While attempting to be standard bearers for clean sources, these states have locked horns with the Sámi over the construction of windfarms, water power facilities, and digging operations on their native soil; the Sámi argue their fundamental freedoms, livelihoods, and culture are at risk. "It's very difficult being such a small minority to protect your rights when the arguments are grounded in environmental protection," Sara observes. "Mining practices has adopted the rhetoric of sustainability, but yet it's just aiming to find more suitable ways to persist in practices of use."

Individual Challenges

The artist and her relatives have personally clashed with the state authorities over its increasingly stringent policies on reindeer management. Previously, Sara's brother embarked on a set of ultimately unsuccessful court actions over the mandatory slaughter of his herd, apparently to stop overgrazing. To back him, Sara produced a multi-year collection of creations called Pile O'Sápmi including a huge screen of 400 cranial remains, which was exhibited at the 2017 show Documenta 14 and later obtained by the National Museum of Oslo, where it hangs in the lobby.

The Role of Art in Activism

For numerous Indigenous people, creative work appears the exclusive sphere in which they can be heard by outsiders. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|