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Visitors to Tate Modern are used to unexpected encounters in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an simulated sun, glided down spiral slides, and observed automated jellyfish floating through the air. But this marks the first time they will be engaging themselves in the complex nose passages of a reindeer. The latest artistic project for this huge space—designed by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites visitors into a maze-like construction based on the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nose cavities. Upon entering, they can stroll around or unwind on pelts, listening on earphones to Sámi elders imparting stories and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

Why choose the nasal structure? It could appear playful, but the installation pays tribute to a rarely recognized scientific wonder: scientists have discovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the surrounding air it takes in by eighty degrees, helping the animal to endure in harsh Arctic temperatures. Expanding the nose to bigger than a person, Sara notes, "creates a sense of insignificance that you as a human being are not in control over nature." She is a former writer, young adult author, and environmental activist, who comes from a reindeer-herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Perhaps that fosters the possibility to alter your viewpoint or trigger some humility," she states.

A Celebration to Indigenous Heritage

The labyrinthine structure is one of several features in Sara's absorbing exhibition showcasing the culture, science, and philosophy of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi count approximately 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Kola region (an region they call Sápmi). They have experienced discrimination, cultural suppression, and suppression of their tongue by all four countries. Through highlighting the reindeer, an animal at the core of the Sámi mythology and origin tale, the work also highlights the group's struggles associated with the climate crisis, land dispossession, and external control.

Symbolism in Components

At the long entrance ramp, there's a looming, 26-meter structure of skins trapped by power and light cables. It serves as a symbol for the governance and financial structures constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part heavenly staircase, this component of the exhibit, called Goavve-, points to the Sámi name for an extreme weather phenomenon, whereby solid sheets of ice appear as fluctuating weather liquefy and refreeze the snow, locking in the reindeers' main cold-season nourishment, lichen. The condition is a outcome of climate change, which is happening up to four times faster in the Polar region than in other regions.

A few years back, I met with Sara in the Norwegian far north during a severe cold period and went with Sámi pastoralists on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they carried containers of supplementary feed on to the wind-scoured tundra to provide manually. The reindeer crowded round us, pawing the frozen ground in vain attempts for vegetative bits. This costly and laborious process is having a drastic effect on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the choice is starvation. As goavvi winters become commonplace, reindeer are succumbing—a number from hunger, others suffocating after plunging into water bodies through thinning ice sheets. In a sense, the installation is a monument to them. "Through the stacking of materials, in a way I'm bringing the condition to London," says Sara.

Diverging Worldviews

The sculpture also emphasizes the clear difference between the modern interpretation of energy as a resource to be harnessed for gain and livelihood and the Sámi outlook of life force as an innate life force in creatures, individuals, and nature. This venue's legacy as a fossil fuel plant is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi view as eco-imperialism by Nordic countries. As they strive to be leaders for renewable energy, these states have locked horns with the Sámi over the development of windfarms, water power facilities, and mines on their native soil; the Sámi assert their fundamental freedoms, incomes, and traditions are threatened. "It's hard being such a tiny group to defend yourself when the reasons are based on saving the world," Sara notes. "Resource exploitation has co-opted the language of environmentalism, but yet it's just aiming to find more suitable ways to maintain practices of consumption."

Family Conflicts

The artist and her relatives have personally conflicted with the state authorities over its ever-stricter rules on animal husbandry. Previously, Sara's sibling undertook a set of ultimately unsuccessful court actions over the forced culling of his animals, ostensibly to stop excessive feeding. To back him, Sara developed a extended set of pieces called Pile O'Sápmi comprising a colossal screen of 400 reindeer skulls, which was displayed at the 2017 art exhibition Documenta 14 and later purchased by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the entrance.

Creative Expression as Awareness

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