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Attendees to Tate Modern are familiar to unusual displays in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an artificial sun, slid down amusement rides, and observed AI-powered sea creatures drifting through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be immersing themselves in the complex nose cavities of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this immense space—developed by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—encourages visitors into a labyrinthine design based on the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nasal passages. Once inside, they can meander around or unwind on pelts, listening on earphones to tribal seniors telling stories and knowledge.

The Significance of the Nose

Why choose the nasal structure? It might seem quirky, but the artwork celebrates a rarely recognized natural marvel: scientists have discovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the incoming air it inhales by eighty degrees, allowing the creature to thrive in extreme Arctic temperatures. Enlarging the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara notes, "generates a perception of insignificance that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." The artist is a former reporter, children's author, and land defender, who is from a pastoral family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Perhaps that creates the possibility to alter your perspective or evoke some humbleness," she continues.

A Celebration to Traditional Ways

The winding installation is among various features in Sara's immersive exhibition celebrating the traditions, understanding, and worldview of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi total about 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an region they call Sápmi). They have faced oppression, integration policies, and eradication of their tongue by all four countries. Through highlighting the reindeer, an animal at the core of the Sámi belief system and origin tale, the installation also highlights the group's issues connected to the environmental emergency, loss of territory, and external control.

Metaphor in Materials

On the lengthy access ramp, there's a soaring, 26-meter sculpture of pelts entangled by power and light cables. It serves as a analogy for the political and economic systems limiting the Sámi. Part pylon, part spiritual ascent, this part of the installation, named Goavve-, refers to the Sámi name for an extreme weather phenomenon, in which dense layers of ice develop as fluctuating weather liquefy and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' main cold-season nourishment, fungus. Goavvi is a result of climate change, which is happening up to much more rapidly in the Far North than in other regions.

Previously, I met with Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a icy season and went with Sámi pastoralists on their Arctic vehicles in chilly conditions as they carried carts of food pellets on to the barren frozen landscape to dispense through labor. The reindeer crowded round us, pawing the slippery ground in vain attempts for lichen-covered pieces. This costly and laborious process is having a significant influence on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. However the other option is malnutrition. When such conditions become routine, reindeer are dying—a number from starvation, others drowning after sinking in lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. To some extent, the art is a monument to them. "With the layering of components, in a way I'm bringing the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

The installation also highlights the clear divergence between the western understanding of power as a commodity to be harnessed for economic benefit and livelihood and the Sámi worldview of energy as an inherent power in creatures, people, and nature. The gallery's legacy as a fossil fuel plant is linked with this, as is what the Sámi consider eco-imperialism by Scandinavian states. While attempting to be exemplars for clean sources, these states have clashed with the Sámi over the construction of wind energy projects, water power facilities, and digging operations on their native soil; the Sámi contend their fundamental freedoms, livelihoods, and way of life are at risk. "It's very difficult being such a limited population to stand your ground when the reasons are based on global sustainability," Sara notes. "Extractivism has co-opted the discourse of sustainability, but yet it's just attempting to find alternative ways to maintain patterns of consumption."

Family Challenges

Sara and her kin have personally clashed with the national administration over its ever-stricter rules on herding. A few years ago, Sara's sibling initiated a sequence of ultimately unsuccessful lawsuits over the forced culling of his animals, ostensibly to stop vegetation depletion. As a show of solidarity, Sara produced a four-year collection of artworks called Pile O'Sápmi featuring a massive screen of 400 reindeer skulls, which was shown at the 2017's art exhibition Documenta 14 and later obtained by the National Museum of Oslo, where it resides in the lobby.

The Role of Art in Activism

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