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Guests to Tate Modern are used to surprising experiences in its vast Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an man-made sun, glided down amusement rides, and seen automated jellyfish hovering through the air. But this marks the inaugural time they will be immersing themselves in the detailed nose passages of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this immense space—developed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes gallerygoers into a winding design inspired by the expanded inside of a reindeer's nose cavities. Upon entering, they can wander around or chill out on reindeer hides, tuning in on headphones to tribal seniors telling tales and wisdom.

The Significance of the Nose

Why the nose? It could appear playful, but the exhibit celebrates a little-known natural marvel: scientists have uncovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the surrounding air it inhales by 80 degrees celsius, enabling the creature to survive in harsh Arctic conditions. Scaling the nose to bigger than a person, Sara explains, "creates a sense of inferiority that you as a individual are not in control over nature." Sara is a ex- writer, young adult author, and land defender, who hails from a reindeer-herding family in northern Norway. "Perhaps that fosters the chance to alter your viewpoint or trigger some humbleness," she states.

A Tribute to Sámi Culture

The winding structure is among various components in Sara's absorbing art project showcasing the heritage, science, and worldview of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi number roughly 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, Finland, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They have endured persecution, forced assimilation, and suppression of their tongue by all four states. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the heart of the Sámi belief system and creation story, the art also draws attention to the people's struggles associated with the global warming, land dispossession, and external control.

Meaning in Materials

At the extended access slope, there's a looming, 26-meter structure of skins ensnared by power and light cables. It can be read as a metaphor for the governance and financial structures limiting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part celestial ladder, this section of the installation, titled Goavve-, relates to the Sámi word for an extreme weather phenomenon, in which thick sheets of ice form as varying temperatures melt and ice over the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary cold-season food, lichen. Goavvi is a result of climate change, which is taking place up to four times faster in the Polar region than elsewhere.

Three years ago, I visited Sara in the Norwegian far north during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi herders on their snowmobiles in biting cold as they carried trailers of animal nutrition on to the barren tundra to dispense through labor. The herd gathered round us, pawing the icy ground in vain for vegetative pieces. This costly and laborious method is having a significant influence on animal rearing—and on the animals' natural survival. But the other option is malnutrition. As these icy periods become commonplace, reindeer are succumbing—some from hunger, others suffocating after falling into lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. On one level, the art is a memorial to them. "Through the stacking of materials, in a way I'm transporting the condition to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Belief Systems

The sculpture also underscores the sharp divergence between the industrial understanding of power as a commodity to be exploited for gain and livelihood and the Sámi worldview of vitality as an inherent life force in creatures, individuals, and nature. The gallery's past as a fossil fuel plant is linked with this, as is what the Sámi consider eco-imperialism by regional governments. While attempting to be standard bearers for sustainable power, Scandinavian countries have disagreed with the Sámi over the development of turbine fields, water power facilities, and mines on their native soil; the Sámi assert their fundamental freedoms, livelihoods, and way of life are endangered. "It's very difficult being such a tiny group to protect your rights when the arguments are based on saving the world," Sara comments. "Resource exploitation has co-opted the discourse of environmentalism, but still it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to maintain practices of use."

Individual Challenges

The artist and her kin have themselves disagreed with the state authorities over its ever-stricter policies on herding. Previously, Sara's brother initiated a series of ultimately unsuccessful lawsuits over the mandatory slaughter of his animals, ostensibly to stop vegetation depletion. In support, Sara developed a four-year series of pieces called Pile O'Sápmi comprising a massive curtain of four hundred reindeer skulls, which was exhibited at the 2017 art exhibition Documenta 14 and later purchased by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the entrance.

Art as Awareness

For numerous Indigenous people, art appears the sole domain in which they can be listened to by outsiders. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|