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Visitors to Tate Modern are familiar to unexpected encounters in its spacious Turbine Hall. They've sunbathed under an simulated sun, descended down amusement rides, and seen automated jellyfish floating through the air. However this marks the initial time they will be engaging themselves in the complex nasal passages of a reindeer. The newest creative installation for this cavernous space—developed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes patrons into a labyrinthine structure based on the expanded inside of a reindeer's nasal cavities. Once inside, they can wander around or chill out on reindeer hides, tuning in on headphones to Sámi elders telling narratives and insights.

Why the Nose?

Why the nose? It could appear playful, but the exhibit celebrates a rarely recognized scientific wonder: researchers have discovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can warm the surrounding air it takes in by 80 degrees celsius, enabling the animal to endure in extreme Arctic temperatures. Expanding the nose to bigger than a person, Sara explains, "creates a perception of insignificance that you as a human being are not dominant over nature." She is a ex- journalist, children's author, and environmental activist, who is from a herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Perhaps that generates the chance to shift your outlook or evoke some humbleness," she adds.

An Homage to Traditional Ways

The labyrinthine design is one of several elements in Sara's immersive commission showcasing the heritage, knowledge, and philosophy of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi count approximately 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, 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 tongue by all four states. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the core of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the art also highlights the group's issues relating to the climate crisis, loss of territory, and colonialism.

Meaning in Elements

At the extended entry slope, there's a looming, 26-metre sculpture of pelts entangled by electrical wires. It can be read as a symbol for the societal frameworks restricting the Sámi. Part pylon, part celestial ladder, this section of the artwork, called Goavve-, refers to the Sámi name for an extreme weather phenomenon, in which thick coatings of ice form as fluctuating conditions liquefy and solidify again the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary cold-season sustenance, fungus. Goavvi is a consequence of planetary warming, which is happening up to at an accelerated rate in the Far North than in other regions.

A few years back, I visited Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a goavvi winter and accompanied Sámi reindeer keepers on their snowmobiles in biting cold as they hauled trailers of supplementary feed on to the exposed Arctic plains to distribute by hand. These animals crowded round us, pawing the slippery ground in vain attempts for vegetative bits. This costly and demanding procedure is having a significant effect on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' independence. But the other option is death. As goavvi winters become frequent, reindeer are dying—some from hunger, others suffocating after sinking in water bodies through thinning ice sheets. On one level, the art is a tribute to them. "Through the stacking of components, in a way I'm bringing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Worldviews

The installation also underscores the sharp difference between the western understanding of electricity as a asset to be harnessed for profit and survival and the Sámi worldview of vitality as an natural power in creatures, humans, and the environment. The gallery's past as a fossil fuel plant is linked with this, as is what the Sámi view as environmental exploitation by Scandinavian states. While attempting to be leaders for renewable energy, Scandinavian countries have locked horns with the Sámi over the development of wind energy projects, hydroelectric dams, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi contend their legal protections, livelihoods, and traditions are threatened. "It's hard being such a tiny group to stand your ground when the reasons are grounded in environmental protection," Sara observes. "Extractivism has adopted the language of sustainability, but nonetheless it's just attempting to find alternative ways to persist in patterns of use."

Personal Challenges

The artist and her family have personally disagreed with the Norwegian government over its ever-stricter policies on herding. A few years ago, Sara's brother embarked on a set of finally failed court actions over the required reduction of his animals, apparently to stop vegetation depletion. In support, Sara developed a extended set of artworks named Pile O'Sápmi including a massive screen of four hundred cranial remains, which was displayed at the 2017's art exhibition Documenta 14 and later acquired by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the entrance.

Creative Expression as Advocacy

For numerous Indigenous people, creative work is the only realm in which they can be heard by the global community. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|