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Attendees to the renowned gallery are accustomed to surprising encounters in its vast Turbine Hall. They've basked under an artificial sun, glided down amusement rides, and witnessed AI-powered jellyfish floating through the air. Yet this marks the first time they will be engaging themselves in the detailed nose chambers of a reindeer. The current artistic project for this huge space—created by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites patrons into a maze-like structure inspired by the expanded inside of a reindeer's nose passages. Inside, they can meander around or unwind on skins, tuning in on headphones to Sámi elders imparting narratives and knowledge.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why the nose? It might seem whimsical, but the exhibit honors a rarely recognized scientific wonder: researchers have uncovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can warm the incoming air it takes in by 80°C, enabling the animal to survive in harsh Arctic climates. Enlarging the nose to larger than human size, Sara says, "produces a perception of insignificance that you as a human being are not dominant over nature." Sara is a ex- writer, children's author, and rights advocate, who comes from a herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Possibly that creates the potential to alter your viewpoint or evoke some humility," she continues.

A Tribute to Sámi Culture

The winding structure is part of a components in Sara's immersive commission showcasing the heritage, knowledge, and worldview of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Partially migratory, the Sámi number roughly 100,000 people spread across the Norwegian north, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an territory they call Sápmi). They've faced persecution, integration policies, and eradication of their dialect by all four countries. Through highlighting the reindeer, an animal at the core of the Sámi belief system and origin tale, the work also draws attention to the community's struggles relating to the environmental emergency, land dispossession, and external control.

Metaphor in Elements

On the extended entry ramp, there's a soaring, 26-metre sculpture of pelts trapped by power and light cables. It represents a analogy for the political and economic systems constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this component of the artwork, titled Goavve-, refers to the Sámi name for an harsh environmental condition, wherein solid sheets of ice develop as changing temperatures thaw and refreeze the snow, encasing the reindeers' main cold-season food, lichen. Goavvi is a result of planetary warming, which is happening up to four times faster in the Arctic than globally.

Three years ago, I traveled to see Sara in the Norwegian far north during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi herders on their snowmobiles in biting cold as they carried containers of food pellets on to the barren tundra to provide manually. These animals crowded round us, digging the icy ground in vain for mossy pieces. This costly and laborious method is having a significant influence on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the other option is death. As these icy periods become routine, reindeer are dying—some from hunger, others suffocating after sinking in lakes and rivers through prematurely melting ice. In a sense, the installation is a tribute to them. "By overlapping of components, in a way I'm transporting the condition to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

The installation also highlights the sharp divergence between the industrial understanding of electricity as a commodity to be exploited for profit and livelihood and the Sámi outlook of life force as an inherent life force in animals, individuals, and nature. This venue's history as a industrial facility is connected to this, as is what the Sámi consider eco-imperialism by regional governments. In their efforts to be exemplars for clean sources, these states have clashed with the Sámi over the building of wind energy projects, hydroelectric dams, and extraction sites on their ancestral land; the Sámi argue their legal protections, livelihoods, and way of life are threatened. "It's very difficult being such a limited population to stand your ground when the justifications are based on environmental protection," Sara comments. "Resource exploitation has appropriated the rhetoric of environmentalism, but nonetheless it's just striving to find better ways to maintain habits of use."

Personal Conflicts

She and her relatives have personally disagreed with the Norwegian government over its tightening policies on animal husbandry. Previously, Sara's sibling embarked on a series of unsuccessful legal cases over the forced culling of his animals, ostensibly to stop vegetation depletion. To back him, Sara created a four-year collection of pieces named Pile O'Sápmi including a huge drape of numerous animal bones, which was exhibited at the 2017 show Documenta 14 and later acquired by the National Museum of Oslo, where it is displayed in the lobby.

Creative Expression as Advocacy

Among the community, creative work appears the sole domain in which they can be understood by the global community. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|