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Attendees to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unusual encounters in its vast Turbine Hall. They've relaxed under an man-made sun, glided down helter skelters, and observed robotic sea creatures hovering through the air. Yet this marks the initial time they will be immersing themselves in the detailed nose chambers of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this immense space—created by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—encourages gallerygoers into a maze-like structure inspired by the expanded inside of a reindeer's nose airways. Inside, they can stroll around or relax on pelts, tuning in on earphones to community leaders sharing narratives and wisdom.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

What's the focus on the nose? It could seem playful, but the artwork pays tribute to a little-known scientific wonder: researchers have discovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can heat the ambient air it breathes in by 80°C, helping the animal to thrive in harsh Arctic temperatures. Enlarging the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara notes, "produces a feeling of insignificance that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." She is a former journalist, children's author, and rights advocate, who is from a herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Possibly that generates the potential to alter your outlook or evoke some humility," she states.

A Celebration to Traditional Ways

The maze-like design is part of a elements in Sara's absorbing commission celebrating the traditions, knowledge, and beliefs of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Partially migratory, the Sámi total roughly 100,000 people ranged across the Norwegian north, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an region they call Sápmi). They've faced persecution, integration policies, and eradication of their language by all four countries. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the work also spotlights the group's issues connected to the global warming, property rights, and colonialism.

Meaning in Materials

On the lengthy access incline, there's a looming, 26-meter structure of skins ensnared by utility lines. It can be read as a symbol for the political and economic systems constraining the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part spiritual ascent, this part of the installation, titled Goavve-, points to the Sámi word for an extreme weather phenomenon, wherein dense sheets of ice develop as fluctuating conditions melt and solidify again the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary winter food, moss. Goavvi is a result of global heating, which is taking place up to much more rapidly in the Far North than elsewhere.

A few years back, I visited Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a icy season and went with Sámi pastoralists on their motorized sleds in chilly conditions as they carried containers of animal nutrition on to the exposed tundra to provide by hand. The reindeer surrounded round us, scratching the slippery ground in vain for lichen-covered morsels. This costly and laborious procedure is having a drastic effect on animal rearing—and on the animals' natural survival. Yet the choice is starvation. As goavvi winters become frequent, reindeer are succumbing—a number from hunger, others submerging after falling into lakes and rivers through thinning ice sheets. In a sense, the installation is a monument to them. "Through the stacking of components, in a way I'm introducing the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Opposing Worldviews

The sculpture also underscores the sharp difference between the modern view of electricity as a resource to be utilized for profit and survival and the Sámi worldview of vitality as an inherent life force in creatures, humans, and land. This venue's legacy as a coal and oil power station is linked with this, as is what the Sámi consider green colonialism by Scandinavian states. In their efforts to be leaders for sustainable power, Scandinavian countries have disagreed with the Sámi over the construction of wind energy projects, river barriers, and extraction sites on their native soil; the Sámi argue their human rights, ways of life, and traditions are endangered. "It's challenging being such a tiny group to defend yourself when the arguments are rooted in environmental protection," Sara observes. "Resource exploitation has co-opted the rhetoric of environmentalism, but still it's just striving to find better ways to persist in habits of use."

Family Struggles

The artist and her kin have personally conflicted with the Norwegian government over its tightening rules on herding. A few years ago, Sara's sibling undertook a series of unsuccessful lawsuits over the required reduction of his animals, ostensibly to stop overgrazing. As a show of solidarity, Sara developed a extended collection of creations named Pile O'Sápmi featuring a colossal drape of 400 animal bones, which was shown at the 2017's show Documenta 14 and later purchased by the national institution, where it hangs in the lobby.

Creative Expression as Activism

Among the community, art is the only domain in which they can be listened to by the global community. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|