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Attendees to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unexpected experiences in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an artificial sun, glided down spiral slides, and observed AI-powered jellyfish floating through the air. Yet this marks the initial time they will be immersing themselves in the complex nasal passages of a reindeer. The current artistic project for this cavernous space—created by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites visitors into a maze-like design inspired by the enlarged interior of a reindeer's nose cavities. Inside, they can meander around or relax on pelts, tuning in on headphones to community leaders imparting narratives and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

What's the focus on the nose? It could sound quirky, but the artwork honors a rarely recognized natural marvel: researchers have uncovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the surrounding air it breathes in by 80 degrees celsius, helping the creature to survive in harsh Arctic temperatures. Enlarging the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara explains, "generates a sense of insignificance that you as a person are not superior over nature." The artist is a ex- reporter, young adult author, and rights advocate, who comes from a herding family in northern Norway. "Maybe that generates the possibility to change your viewpoint or spark some humility," she adds.

A Tribute to Indigenous Heritage

The labyrinthine design is part of a elements in Sara's absorbing art project celebrating the culture, science, and philosophy of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi number about 100,000 people spread across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an territory they call Sápmi). They have faced persecution, integration policies, and suppression of their tongue by all four nations. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an animal at the center of the Sámi belief system and founding narrative, the installation also spotlights the people's challenges relating to the global warming, loss of territory, and external control.

Symbolism in Components

Along the extended entrance ramp, there's a looming, eighty-five-foot formation of reindeer hides entangled by utility lines. It can be read as a symbol for the societal frameworks restricting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this component of the artwork, named Goavve-, refers to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, whereby dense sheets of ice develop as varying conditions thaw and solidify again the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary cold-season nourishment, moss. The condition is a outcome of global heating, which is occurring up to four times faster in the Arctic than in other regions.

A few years back, I traveled to see Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a icy season and joined Sámi pastoralists on their motorized sleds in biting cold as they transported carts of animal nutrition on to the wind-scoured Arctic plains to provide through labor. These animals crowded round us, scratching the icy ground in vain for mossy pieces. This resource-intensive and laborious method is having a drastic influence on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. However the alternative is malnutrition. As goavvi winters become commonplace, reindeer are perishing—a number from starvation, others submerging after falling into lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. In a sense, the installation is a tribute to them. "Through the stacking of materials, in a way I'm introducing the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Opposing Worldviews

The installation also underscores the sharp divergence between the western view of power as a commodity to be harnessed for economic benefit and survival and the Sámi outlook of vitality as an innate life force in creatures, humans, and the environment. The gallery's legacy as a coal and oil power station is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi see as green colonialism by regional governments. While attempting to be exemplars for renewable energy, Nordic nations have locked horns with the Sámi over the building of turbine fields, hydroelectric dams, and extraction sites on their traditional territory; the Sámi contend their human rights, livelihoods, and traditions are threatened. "It's very difficult being such a small minority to stand your ground when the reasons are grounded in environmental protection," Sara observes. "Mining practices has co-opted the language of sustainability, but nonetheless it's just attempting to find better ways to persist in patterns of consumption."

Personal Struggles

She and her kin have themselves disagreed with the state authorities over its tightening policies on herding. A few years ago, Sara's sibling undertook a set of finally failed court actions over the forced culling of his animals, supposedly to stop overgrazing. To back him, Sara produced a multi-year set of creations called Pile O'Sápmi comprising a massive screen of 400 animal bones, which was exhibited at the 2017's art exhibition Documenta 14 and later purchased by the national institution, where it is displayed in the entrance.

The Role of Art in Awareness

For many Sámi, creative work appears the sole realm in which they can be understood by the global community. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|