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Attendees to Tate Modern are familiar to unexpected encounters in its expansive Turbine Hall. They've sunbathed under an simulated sun, descended down spiral slides, and observed AI-powered sea creatures floating through the air. However this marks the inaugural time they will be engaging themselves in the detailed nose passages of a reindeer. The newest creative installation for this cavernous space—created by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes visitors into a winding structure modeled after the expanded inside of a reindeer's nose passages. Upon entering, they can stroll around or unwind on skins, tuning in on headphones to tribal seniors sharing narratives and wisdom.

Why the Nose?

What's the focus on the nose? It might appear playful, but the artwork celebrates a obscure biological feat: researchers have found that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the incoming air it takes in by eighty degrees, enabling the animal to endure in extreme Arctic conditions. Expanding the nose to bigger than a person, Sara notes, "produces a sense of inferiority that you as a human being are not dominant over nature." The artist is a ex- writer, children's author, and environmental activist, who hails from a herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Perhaps that creates the potential to change your outlook or evoke some humbleness," she states.

A Tribute to Sámi Culture

The winding structure is one of several features in Sara's absorbing exhibition honoring the traditions, understanding, and philosophy of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Partially migratory, the Sámi number approximately 100,000 people spread across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They have experienced oppression, integration policies, and repression of their tongue by all four states. Through highlighting the reindeer, an animal at the heart of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the work also spotlights the people's challenges associated with the global warming, land dispossession, and colonialism.

Symbolism in Elements

On the lengthy access incline, there's a soaring, 26-meter sculpture of reindeer hides trapped by electrical wires. It represents a symbol for the political and economic systems restricting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this component of the installation, named Goavve-, points to the Sámi word for an harsh environmental condition, wherein thick sheets of ice form as fluctuating weather melt and ice over the snow, locking in the reindeers' main cold-season food, moss. The condition is a result of climate change, which is taking place up to four times faster in the Polar region than in other regions.

A few years back, I traveled to see Sara in the Norwegian far north during a goavvi winter and accompanied Sámi reindeer keepers on their snowmobiles in chilly conditions as they carried carts of animal nutrition on to the exposed frozen landscape to distribute through labor. The herd gathered round us, digging the frozen ground in vain attempts for lichen-covered pieces. This resource-intensive and demanding procedure is having a drastic effect on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' independence. Yet the other option is death. As these icy periods become commonplace, reindeer are dying—a number from starvation, others drowning after sinking in streams through prematurely melting ice. To some extent, the art is a tribute to them. "With the layering of materials, in a way I'm transporting the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

The sculpture also underscores the stark difference between the industrial understanding of energy as a resource to be utilized for gain and livelihood and the Sámi philosophy of life force as an natural power in creatures, humans, and the environment. This venue's past as a fossil fuel plant is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi view as environmental exploitation by regional governments. As they strive to be standard bearers for clean sources, Scandinavian countries have disagreed with the Sámi over the building of windfarms, river barriers, and mines on their traditional territory; the Sámi contend their legal protections, incomes, and way of life are at risk. "It's hard being such a tiny group to defend yourself when the reasons are based on saving the world," Sara comments. "Mining practices has co-opted the language of environmentalism, but still it's just attempting to find alternative ways to continue habits of consumption."

Family Challenges

She and her family have personally clashed with the state authorities over its increasingly stringent rules on animal husbandry. A few years ago, Sara's brother embarked on a set of finally failed legal cases over the mandatory slaughter of his herd, supposedly to stop overgrazing. To back him, Sara produced a multi-year series of artworks titled Pile O'Sápmi comprising a massive screen of numerous animal bones, which was shown at the 2017's art exhibition Documenta 14 and later acquired by the National Museum of Oslo, where it hangs in the entryway.

Creative Expression as Activism

For many Sámi, creative work is the exclusive sphere in which they can be understood by the global community. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|