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Guests to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unexpected encounters in its spacious Turbine Hall. They've sunbathed under an man-made sun, descended down helter skelters, and witnessed AI-powered jellyfish floating through the air. However this marks the inaugural time they will be venturing themselves in the complex nose chambers of a reindeer. The latest creative installation for this cavernous space—developed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—invites patrons into a labyrinthine construction based on the expanded interior of a reindeer's nasal cavities. Upon entering, they can meander around or relax on reindeer hides, listening on headphones to community leaders imparting tales and knowledge.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why choose the nasal structure? It might seem playful, but the installation celebrates a little-known natural marvel: experts have discovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the surrounding air it breathes in by 80 degrees celsius, enabling the animal to thrive in harsh Arctic temperatures. Enlarging the nose to bigger than a person, Sara says, "produces a sense of smallness that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." The artist is a ex- writer, young adult author, and rights advocate, who is from a reindeer-herding family in the far north of Norway. "Perhaps that creates the possibility to change your viewpoint or evoke some humbleness," she states.

A Tribute to Traditional Ways

The maze-like installation is one of several features in Sara's absorbing art project honoring the heritage, science, and beliefs of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi count roughly 100,000 people ranged across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They've experienced persecution, forced assimilation, and repression of their dialect by all four states. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi belief system and origin tale, the art also spotlights the group's challenges relating to the global warming, loss of territory, and imperialism.

Symbolism in Elements

At the lengthy access incline, there's a towering, 26-metre formation of reindeer hides entangled by electrical wires. It represents a analogy for the governance and financial structures limiting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part spiritual ascent, this part of the exhibit, called Goavve-, relates to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, wherein dense sheets of ice appear as fluctuating conditions melt and ice over the snow, locking in the reindeers' primary cold-season food, lichen. The condition is a result of planetary warming, which is occurring up to four times faster in the Arctic than in other regions.

Three years ago, I met with Sara in a remote town during a icy season and accompanied Sámi reindeer keepers on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they carried carts of supplementary feed on to the exposed frozen landscape to provide manually. The herd gathered round us, digging the frozen ground in futility for lichen-covered morsels. This resource-intensive and demanding procedure is having a drastic effect on animal rearing—and on the animals' independence. Yet the alternative is starvation. As goavvi winters become frequent, reindeer are dying—some from starvation, others drowning after sinking in water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. On one level, the art is a memorial to them. "Through the stacking of materials, in a way I'm introducing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Diverging Perspectives

This artwork also emphasizes the stark difference between the industrial understanding of energy as a resource to be exploited for gain and survival and the Sámi worldview of vitality as an innate essence in animals, humans, and the environment. This venue's past as a industrial facility is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi view as eco-imperialism by regional governments. As they strive to be leaders for renewable energy, Scandinavian countries have locked horns with the Sámi over the construction of turbine fields, water power facilities, and mines on their ancestral land; 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 reasons are grounded in global sustainability," Sara observes. "Resource exploitation has co-opted the language of environmentalism, but still it's just aiming to find alternative ways to persist in habits of expenditure."

Personal Challenges

The artist and her kin have themselves conflicted with the state authorities over its tightening rules on animal husbandry. Previously, Sara's brother embarked on a set of unsuccessful lawsuits over the required reduction of his animals, apparently to stop vegetation depletion. To back him, Sara created a multi-year series of pieces called Pile O'Sápmi featuring a huge drape of four hundred reindeer skulls, which was displayed at the 2017's event Documenta 14 and later obtained by the public gallery, where it hangs in the lobby.

The Role of Art in Advocacy

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