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Visitors to Tate Modern are accustomed to surprising experiences in its spacious Turbine Hall. They've sunbathed under an simulated sun, glided down amusement rides, and observed robotic jellyfish hovering through the air. But this marks the inaugural time they will be venturing themselves in the intricate nasal passages of a reindeer. The latest artistic project for this huge space—designed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes visitors into a labyrinthine construction inspired by the expanded inside of a reindeer's nose passages. Once inside, they can wander around or relax on skins, tuning in on headphones to community leaders telling narratives and wisdom.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why the nose? It might appear playful, but the installation pays tribute to a rarely recognized biological feat: experts have discovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can heat the surrounding air it inhales by eighty degrees, helping the creature to survive in extreme Arctic climates. Scaling the nose to larger than human size, Sara explains, "generates a feeling of insignificance that you as a person are not superior over nature." Sara is a ex- writer, young adult author, and land defender, who comes from a reindeer-herding family in the far north of Norway. "Possibly that creates the potential to change your viewpoint or trigger some modesty," she continues.

An Homage to Indigenous Heritage

The maze-like structure is part of a features in Sara's absorbing commission showcasing the heritage, science, and beliefs of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi number approximately 100,000 people spread across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Kola region (an region they call Sápmi). They have endured discrimination, forced assimilation, and eradication of their language by all four countries. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the work also highlights the group's challenges connected to the global warming, property rights, and external control.

Symbolism in Elements

Along the long access incline, there's a soaring, 26-metre sculpture of pelts ensnared by utility lines. It represents a symbol for the political and economic systems constraining the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part heavenly staircase, this section of the exhibit, titled Goavve-, relates to the Sámi name for an harsh environmental condition, whereby thick sheets of ice develop as varying temperatures melt and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' key winter nourishment, lichen. Goavvi is a consequence of climate change, which is occurring up to at an accelerated rate in the Far North than in other regions.

Three years ago, I met with Sara in a remote town during a icy season and went with Sámi pastoralists on their snowmobiles in biting cold as they hauled containers of supplementary feed on to the exposed Arctic plains to distribute through labor. The reindeer crowded round us, pawing the slippery ground in futility for lichen-covered bits. This resource-intensive and demanding process is having a severe impact on herding practices—and on the animals' independence. However the alternative is starvation. As goavvi winters become commonplace, reindeer are dying—a number from hunger, others suffocating after sinking in streams through prematurely melting ice. In a sense, the installation is a monument to them. "By overlapping of elements, in a way I'm transporting the condition to London," says Sara.

Diverging Perspectives

The sculpture also emphasizes the stark contrast between the modern view of power as a resource to be harnessed for profit and survival and the Sámi philosophy of life force as an inherent essence in creatures, humans, and the environment. The gallery's past as a industrial facility is connected to this, as is what the Sámi view as eco-imperialism by Nordic countries. In their efforts to be standard bearers for sustainable power, Nordic nations have locked horns with the Sámi over the construction of turbine fields, hydroelectric dams, and extraction sites on their native soil; the Sámi argue their human rights, incomes, and way of life are endangered. "It's hard being such a limited population to protect your rights when the justifications are based on environmental protection," Sara notes. "Resource exploitation has adopted the discourse of environmentalism, but yet it's just attempting to find better ways to persist in practices of consumption."

Individual Challenges

Sara and her kin have themselves disagreed with the national administration over its increasingly stringent regulations on animal husbandry. A few years ago, Sara's sibling undertook a series of finally failed court actions over the required reduction of his herd, ostensibly to stop excessive feeding. To back him, Sara developed a multi-year collection of pieces named Pile O'Sápmi comprising a massive screen of numerous animal bones, which was exhibited at the 2017's event Documenta 14 and later acquired by the National Museum of Oslo, where it resides in the lobby.

The Role of Art in Activism

For many Sámi, visual expression seems the sole sphere in which they can be listened to by the global community. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|