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Guests to the renowned gallery are familiar to unusual displays in its spacious Turbine Hall. They've basked under an simulated sun, slid down spiral slides, and observed AI-powered jellyfish floating through the air. But this marks the initial time they will be engaging themselves in the intricate nose chambers of a reindeer. The newest artistic project for this huge space—designed by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes visitors into a maze-like construction inspired by the scaled-up interior of a reindeer's nose airways. Upon entering, they can meander around or relax on pelts, listening on earphones to Sámi elders sharing tales and insights.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why the nose? It might sound whimsical, but the artwork celebrates a obscure natural marvel: experts have discovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can warm the incoming air it breathes in by 80 degrees celsius, allowing the animal to thrive in harsh Arctic climates. Scaling the nose to larger than human size, Sara explains, "creates a sense of smallness that you as a person are not in control over nature." Sara is a former journalist, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who comes from a herding family in northern Norway. "Maybe that creates the chance to alter your perspective or trigger some humility," she adds.

An Homage to Traditional Ways

The winding design is part of a components in Sara's engaging commission celebrating the traditions, understanding, and philosophy of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Partially migratory, the Sámi number about 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an territory they call Sápmi). They've endured persecution, integration policies, and suppression of their language by all four countries. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi cosmology and origin tale, the installation also draws attention to the community's struggles connected to the environmental emergency, loss of territory, and colonialism.

Symbolism in Components

Along the extended entry slope, there's a towering, 26-meter formation of reindeer hides ensnared by power and light cables. It can be read as a symbol for the political and economic systems limiting the Sámi. Part pylon, part spiritual ascent, this component of the artwork, called Goavve-, refers to the Sámi name for an severe climatic event, wherein thick sheets of ice develop as fluctuating weather liquefy and ice over the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary winter nourishment, lichen. The condition is a result of global heating, which is taking place up to four times faster in the Polar region than in other regions.

Previously, I traveled to see Sara in the Norwegian far north during a severe cold period and went with Sámi pastoralists on their snowmobiles in freezing temperatures as they hauled containers of supplementary feed on to the wind-scoured Arctic plains to dispense by hand. These animals gathered round us, pawing the frozen ground in futility for mossy pieces. This resource-intensive and laborious process is having a significant influence on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' natural survival. Yet the alternative is death. When such conditions become commonplace, reindeer are perishing—some from lack of food, others drowning after plunging into lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. On one level, the art is a tribute to them. "Through the stacking of elements, in a way I'm introducing the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Opposing Worldviews

The sculpture also underscores the stark contrast between the modern view of electricity as a asset to be harnessed for gain and existence and the Sámi worldview of life force as an inherent life force in creatures, individuals, and the environment. This venue's legacy as a coal and oil power station is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi consider eco-imperialism by Scandinavian states. While attempting to be exemplars for clean sources, Nordic nations have locked horns with the Sámi over the development of turbine fields, river barriers, and mines on their traditional territory; the Sámi assert their legal protections, livelihoods, and way of life are threatened. "It's hard being such a limited population to defend yourself when the arguments are grounded in saving the world," Sara comments. "Extractivism has adopted the rhetoric of ecology, but yet it's just aiming to find alternative ways to maintain practices of expenditure."

Family Challenges

The artist and her family have personally clashed with the Norwegian government over its tightening policies on animal husbandry. Previously, Sara's brother embarked on a set of finally failed lawsuits over the mandatory slaughter of his livestock, apparently to stop overgrazing. In support, Sara produced a four-year series of artworks named Pile O'Sápmi comprising a colossal screen of 400 reindeer skulls, which was displayed at the 2017 show Documenta 14 and later acquired by the National Museum of Oslo, where it hangs in the lobby.

Creative Expression as Activism

For numerous Indigenous people, art 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|