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Guests to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unusual experiences in its expansive Turbine Hall. They've relaxed under an artificial sun, descended down amusement rides, and observed automated jellyfish drifting through the air. Yet this marks the initial time they will be immersing themselves in the complex nose chambers of a reindeer. The newest artistic project for this cavernous space—developed by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes patrons into a maze-like construction modeled after the enlarged interior of a reindeer's nasal passages. Upon entering, they can wander around or relax on reindeer hides, listening on headphones to tribal seniors sharing stories and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

What's the focus on the nose? It may appear quirky, but the artwork pays tribute to a little-known natural marvel: experts have uncovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can warm the incoming air it takes in by eighty degrees, helping the creature to endure in harsh Arctic climates. Scaling the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara explains, "creates a perception of insignificance that you as a human being are not superior over nature." She is a ex- writer, children's author, and land defender, who comes from a pastoral family in the far north of Norway. "Perhaps that fosters the possibility to change your viewpoint or spark some humility," she adds.

An Homage to Sámi Culture

The winding design is part of a elements in Sara's absorbing commission honoring the culture, knowledge, and worldview of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi number approximately 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, Finland, Sweden, and the Kola region (an territory they call Sápmi). They have experienced oppression, cultural suppression, and suppression of their dialect by all four nations. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the center of the Sámi belief system and origin tale, the installation also draws attention to the people's challenges associated with the climate crisis, land dispossession, and colonialism.

Metaphor in Components

Along the lengthy entry ramp, there's a looming, 26-metre sculpture of pelts trapped by electrical wires. It can be read as a analogy for the political and economic systems constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this part of the exhibit, named Goavve-, relates to the Sámi word for an severe climatic event, wherein solid sheets of ice appear as fluctuating conditions liquefy and solidify again the snow, trapping the reindeers' key winter sustenance, moss. This phenomenon is a result of global heating, which is occurring up to four times faster in the Far North than in other regions.

A few years back, I visited Sara in a remote town during a goavvi winter and went with Sámi pastoralists on their snowmobiles in chilly conditions as they hauled trailers of supplementary feed on to the wind-scoured frozen landscape to provide manually. The herd crowded round us, scratching the slippery ground in vain attempts for vegetative morsels. This expensive and laborious procedure is having a drastic impact on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' independence. Yet the choice is malnutrition. When such conditions become frequent, reindeer are succumbing—some from hunger, others drowning after falling into streams through thinning ice sheets. In a sense, the art is a monument to them. "By overlapping of components, in a way I'm transporting the condition to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Perspectives

This artwork also emphasizes the sharp divergence between the modern understanding of energy as a asset to be exploited for economic benefit and survival and the Sámi philosophy of life force as an natural power in creatures, people, and the environment. The gallery's legacy as a industrial facility is connected to this, as is what the Sámi view as environmental exploitation by Scandinavian states. In their efforts to be exemplars for renewable energy, Scandinavian countries have disagreed with the Sámi over the building of wind energy projects, hydroelectric dams, and mines on their native soil; the Sámi assert their fundamental freedoms, incomes, and way of life are endangered. "It's hard being such a small minority to protect your rights when the reasons are grounded in saving the world," Sara comments. "Extractivism has co-opted the discourse of ecology, but nonetheless it's just aiming to find better ways to continue patterns of use."

Personal Conflicts

She and her family have personally conflicted with the state authorities over its tightening policies on animal husbandry. Previously, Sara's brother undertook a set of ultimately unsuccessful court actions over the forced culling of his animals, supposedly to stop overgrazing. In support, Sara developed a extended series of creations called Pile O'Sápmi comprising a massive curtain of numerous cranial remains, which was displayed at the 2017 art exhibition Documenta 14 and later obtained by the national institution, where it resides in the entrance.

Creative Expression as Activism

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