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Guests to Tate Modern are used to unexpected encounters in its vast Turbine Hall. They've relaxed under an simulated sun, glided down spiral slides, and seen AI-powered jellyfish hovering through the air. But this marks the first time they will be venturing themselves in the complex nasal cavities of a reindeer. The latest artistic project for this huge space—developed by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites visitors into a maze-like construction based on the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nose cavities. Upon entering, they can meander around or chill out on pelts, listening on headphones to community leaders sharing narratives and insights.

The Significance of the Nose

Why choose the nasal structure? It may appear quirky, but the installation pays tribute to a obscure natural marvel: researchers have found that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the incoming air it inhales by 80 degrees celsius, allowing the animal to thrive in extreme Arctic temperatures. Scaling the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara says, "produces a perception of inferiority that you as a person are not in control over nature." The artist is a former journalist, children's author, and land defender, who hails from a pastoral family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Maybe that creates the chance to alter your perspective or spark some humility," she continues.

A Celebration to Traditional Ways

The winding design is part of a features in Sara's immersive exhibition showcasing the heritage, understanding, and worldview of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Partially migratory, the Sámi count roughly 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an region they call Sápmi). They've faced persecution, integration policies, and repression of their dialect by all four countries. Through highlighting the reindeer, an animal at the core of the Sámi belief system and creation story, the installation also draws attention to the group's struggles associated with the global warming, property rights, and imperialism.

Symbolism in Elements

At the extended access ramp, there's a towering, eighty-five-foot structure of reindeer hides entangled by utility lines. It represents a symbol for the governance and financial structures limiting the Sámi. Part pylon, part heavenly staircase, this component of the exhibit, titled Goavve-, points to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, in which thick coatings of ice develop as varying temperatures thaw and refreeze the snow, encasing the reindeers' primary winter nourishment, moss. The condition is a consequence of planetary warming, which is occurring up to much more rapidly in the Polar region than globally.

Previously, I visited Sara in a remote town during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi reindeer keepers on their Arctic vehicles in chilly conditions as they carried carts of animal nutrition on to the exposed Arctic plains to dispense through labor. These animals gathered round us, scratching the icy ground in vain for mossy bits. This resource-intensive and laborious procedure is having a significant effect on animal rearing—and on the animals' independence. Yet the choice is malnutrition. As these icy periods become routine, reindeer are perishing—some from lack of food, others drowning after plunging into streams through thinning ice sheets. On one level, the installation is a tribute to them. "With the layering of components, in a way I'm introducing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Opposing Belief Systems

This artwork also emphasizes the sharp difference between the modern interpretation of power as a asset to be exploited for gain and livelihood and the Sámi outlook of vitality as an inherent life force in creatures, individuals, and land. Tate Modern's history as a fossil fuel plant is linked with this, as is what the Sámi consider eco-imperialism by regional governments. As they strive to be exemplars for clean sources, Nordic nations have disagreed with the Sámi over the construction of wind energy projects, water power facilities, and mines on their traditional territory; the Sámi argue their legal protections, ways of life, and culture are at risk. "It's very difficult being such a limited population to defend yourself when the justifications are rooted in environmental protection," Sara observes. "Mining practices has adopted the rhetoric of ecology, but yet it's just striving to find more suitable ways to maintain patterns of expenditure."

Personal Challenges

The artist and her relatives have personally disagreed with the national administration over its ever-stricter regulations on reindeer management. A few years ago, Sara's brother embarked on a series of finally failed lawsuits over the mandatory slaughter of his livestock, supposedly to stop overgrazing. As a show of solidarity, Sara developed a extended series of creations titled Pile O'Sápmi featuring a huge drape of four hundred reindeer skulls, which was displayed at the the show Documenta 14 and later purchased by the public gallery, where it resides in the lobby.

The Role of Art in Awareness

For numerous Indigenous people, art seems the exclusive domain in which they can be listened to by the global community. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|