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Guests to the renowned gallery are familiar to surprising encounters in its expansive Turbine Hall. They've relaxed under an man-made sun, glided down helter skelters, and seen AI-powered jellyfish floating through the air. However this marks the inaugural time they will be engaging themselves in the intricate nasal cavities of a reindeer. The current artistic project for this cavernous space—developed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages patrons into a maze-like structure inspired by the scaled-up interior of a reindeer's nose cavities. Upon entering, they can meander around or chill out on skins, tuning in on headphones to Sámi elders imparting narratives and wisdom.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why the nose? It could sound whimsical, but the exhibit celebrates a obscure natural marvel: scientists have uncovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the incoming air it inhales by 80°C, allowing the creature to survive in harsh Arctic temperatures. Enlarging the nose to larger than human size, Sara notes, "produces a feeling of inferiority that you as a human being are not dominant over nature." She is a former journalist, children's author, and environmental activist, who hails from a reindeer-herding family in northern Norway. "Possibly that fosters the possibility to change your perspective or spark some humility," she adds.

An Homage to Traditional Ways

The maze-like structure is among various features in Sara's engaging exhibition celebrating the heritage, understanding, and worldview of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi count roughly 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an territory they call Sápmi). They've faced persecution, forced assimilation, and suppression of their tongue by all four states. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the work also draws attention to the group's struggles relating to the environmental emergency, property rights, and imperialism.

Symbolism in Materials

At the lengthy access slope, there's a soaring, 26-metre sculpture of pelts trapped by electrical wires. It can be read as a symbol for the political and economic systems constraining the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part heavenly staircase, this section of the installation, called Goavve-, relates to the Sámi term for an harsh environmental condition, in which solid sheets of ice develop as fluctuating weather liquefy and ice over the snow, trapping the reindeers' key winter nourishment, moss. Goavvi is a result of planetary warming, which is occurring up to four times faster in the Far North than in other regions.

A few years back, I met with Sara in a remote town during a icy season and went with Sámi herders on their snowmobiles in biting cold as they carried trailers of food pellets on to the barren Arctic plains to provide by hand. The herd gathered round us, digging the slippery ground in vain attempts for vegetative morsels. This expensive and labour-intensive procedure is having a severe impact on herding practices—and on the animals' natural survival. Yet the alternative is malnutrition. As these icy periods become commonplace, reindeer are succumbing—some from starvation, others suffocating after plunging into water bodies through prematurely melting ice. On one level, the work is a tribute to them. "With the layering of materials, in a way I'm bringing the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Opposing Worldviews

This artwork also underscores the stark difference between the western understanding of power as a commodity to be utilized for profit and existence and the Sámi philosophy of energy as an natural life force in animals, people, and the environment. Tate Modern's history as a fossil fuel plant is connected to this, as is what the Sámi view as green colonialism by Nordic countries. While attempting to be leaders for clean sources, these states have clashed with the Sámi over the building of turbine fields, river barriers, and mines on their traditional territory; the Sámi argue their human rights, ways of life, and way of life are threatened. "It's hard being such a tiny group to defend yourself when the reasons are rooted in saving the world," Sara comments. "Extractivism has adopted the language of ecology, but yet it's just striving to find alternative ways to continue habits of consumption."

Individual Challenges

Sara and her kin have personally disagreed with the national administration over its tightening regulations on herding. Previously, Sara's sibling embarked on a sequence of ultimately unsuccessful lawsuits over the required reduction of his animals, apparently to stop vegetation depletion. As a show of solidarity, Sara developed a multi-year collection of pieces named Pile O'Sápmi including a massive screen of numerous animal bones, which was displayed at the 2017's event Documenta 14 and later acquired by the national institution, where it resides in the lobby.

Art as Activism

For many Sámi, creative work is the only domain in which they can be understood by outsiders. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|