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Guests to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unexpected experiences in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have basked under an man-made sun, glided down helter skelters, and witnessed automated jellyfish drifting through the air. However this marks the initial time they will be immersing themselves in the complex nasal passages of a reindeer. The latest artist commission for this immense space—developed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes patrons into a winding construction based on the scaled-up interior of a reindeer's nose cavities. Inside, they can stroll around or unwind on skins, tuning in on earphones to community leaders sharing stories and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

Why the nose? It may appear whimsical, but the installation celebrates a rarely recognized biological feat: experts have uncovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can warm the surrounding air it takes in by 80°C, helping the animal to survive in harsh Arctic conditions. Expanding the nose to bigger than a person, Sara explains, "produces a feeling of insignificance that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." She is a former journalist, children's author, and land defender, who comes from a pastoral family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Perhaps that fosters the possibility to shift your outlook or spark some humility," she continues.

A Celebration to Sámi Culture

The maze-like installation is one of several features in Sara's absorbing art project celebrating the heritage, understanding, and beliefs of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi count about 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an area they call Sápmi). They've endured persecution, cultural suppression, and repression of their tongue by all four countries. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the art also draws attention to the group's challenges associated with the environmental emergency, property rights, and imperialism.

Meaning in Components

At the long entrance slope, there's a soaring, eighty-five-foot sculpture of pelts ensnared by utility lines. It represents a analogy for the political and economic systems limiting the Sámi. Part pylon, part celestial ladder, this part of the exhibit, named Goavve-, points to the Sámi term for an extreme weather phenomenon, wherein solid coatings of ice appear as varying temperatures melt and refreeze the snow, trapping the reindeers' key cold-season sustenance, lichen. The condition is a outcome of global heating, which is taking place up to at an accelerated rate in the Polar region than globally.

Previously, I visited Sara in the Norwegian far north during a severe cold period and went with Sámi herders on their Arctic vehicles in chilly conditions as they hauled trailers of supplementary feed on to the exposed Arctic plains to provide through labor. These animals gathered round us, digging the frozen ground in vain for vegetative pieces. This expensive and labour-intensive process is having a significant impact on herding practices—and on the animals' natural survival. However the choice is death. As these icy periods become frequent, reindeer are dying—some from hunger, others submerging after falling into water bodies through prematurely melting ice. In a sense, the installation is a tribute to them. "With the layering of materials, in a way I'm introducing the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Opposing Worldviews

The sculpture also highlights the clear divergence between the industrial understanding of power as a asset to be utilized for economic benefit and livelihood and the Sámi worldview of energy as an natural essence in creatures, people, and nature. The gallery's legacy as a coal and oil power station is connected to this, as is what the Sámi consider eco-imperialism by Nordic countries. In their efforts to be leaders for clean sources, Nordic nations have clashed with the Sámi over the building of wind energy projects, hydroelectric dams, and extraction sites on their native soil; the Sámi argue their legal protections, livelihoods, and traditions are endangered. "It's challenging being such a tiny group to defend yourself when the justifications are rooted in global sustainability," Sara comments. "Extractivism has adopted the language of sustainability, but yet it's just attempting to find better ways to persist in patterns of expenditure."

Family Challenges

Sara and her family have personally conflicted with the state authorities over its increasingly stringent rules on reindeer management. A few years ago, Sara's sibling undertook a series of finally failed court actions over the mandatory slaughter of his animals, ostensibly to stop vegetation depletion. To back him, Sara developed a multi-year collection of creations called Pile O'Sápmi featuring a massive screen of 400 reindeer skulls, which was shown at the 2017's show Documenta 14 and later purchased by the national institution, where it resides in the entryway.

Art as Awareness

For numerous Indigenous people, art is the sole realm in which they can be heard by outsiders. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|