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Guests to Tate Modern are accustomed to unusual encounters in its vast Turbine Hall. They've basked under an man-made sun, slid down helter skelters, and witnessed AI-powered sea creatures hovering through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be immersing themselves in the intricate nose cavities of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this cavernous space—designed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages visitors into a maze-like construction based on the expanded interior of a reindeer's nasal airways. Upon entering, they can wander around or relax on pelts, tuning in on headphones to community leaders telling stories and wisdom.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why the nose? It might sound whimsical, but the exhibit pays tribute to a little-known scientific wonder: experts have uncovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can warm the ambient air it inhales by 80 degrees celsius, allowing the animal to thrive in harsh Arctic temperatures. Scaling the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara explains, "produces a sense of smallness that you as a human being are not dominant over nature." The artist is a former writer, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who comes from a herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Maybe that fosters the chance to change your viewpoint or trigger some modesty," she adds.

A Celebration to Indigenous Heritage

The winding structure is one of several features in Sara's immersive exhibition celebrating the traditions, understanding, and worldview of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi number about 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an territory they call Sápmi). They've endured persecution, forced assimilation, and suppression of their tongue by all four states. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the center of the Sámi belief system and creation story, the work also draws attention to the community's challenges connected to the global warming, land dispossession, and colonialism.

Metaphor in Elements

On the extended access incline, there's a looming, 26-meter structure of pelts ensnared by utility lines. It represents a metaphor for the political and economic systems restricting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part celestial ladder, this component of the exhibit, titled Goavve-, relates to the Sámi word for an harsh environmental condition, wherein solid sheets of ice appear as fluctuating weather thaw and solidify again the snow, encasing the reindeers' primary winter food, lichen. The condition is a outcome of global heating, which is happening up to much more rapidly in the Far North than globally.

Previously, I met with Sara in a remote town during a icy season and joined Sámi herders on their snowmobiles in chilly conditions as they carried trailers of supplementary feed on to the exposed frozen landscape to provide manually. The reindeer surrounded round us, digging the slippery ground in futility for lichen-covered pieces. This costly and demanding method is having a severe effect on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' natural survival. Yet the alternative is death. As these icy periods become frequent, reindeer are dying—a number from hunger, others submerging after falling into lakes and rivers through prematurely melting ice. In a sense, the art is a tribute to them. "With the layering of materials, in a way I'm introducing the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Perspectives

This artwork also highlights the stark divergence between the modern understanding of power as a asset to be harnessed for gain and livelihood and the Sámi outlook of energy as an inherent life force in creatures, humans, and nature. Tate Modern's past as a industrial facility is linked with this, as is what the Sámi see as environmental exploitation by Scandinavian states. As they strive to be standard bearers for sustainable power, Scandinavian countries have clashed with the Sámi over the building of wind energy projects, river barriers, and digging operations on their native soil; the Sámi argue their human rights, livelihoods, and culture are endangered. "It's very difficult being such a tiny group to protect your rights when the justifications are grounded in saving the world," Sara comments. "Mining practices has adopted the rhetoric of sustainability, but nonetheless it's just striving to find more suitable ways to persist in habits of expenditure."

Family Conflicts

The artist and her family have themselves clashed with the Norwegian government over its increasingly stringent policies on herding. A few years ago, Sara's sibling undertook a series of ultimately unsuccessful court actions over the required reduction of his livestock, supposedly to stop overgrazing. As a show of solidarity, Sara developed a extended series of artworks called Pile O'Sápmi including a colossal screen of 400 cranial remains, which was shown at the the show Documenta 14 and later acquired by the public gallery, where it resides in the entryway.

Art as Activism

For many Sámi, visual expression seems the only sphere in which they can be heard by outsiders. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|