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Visitors to Tate Modern are used to surprising displays in its vast Turbine Hall. They have basked under an man-made sun, descended down spiral slides, and seen AI-powered sea creatures hovering through the air. However this marks the inaugural time they will be venturing themselves in the detailed nasal cavities of a reindeer. The current creative installation for this immense space—developed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages gallerygoers into a winding design inspired by the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nasal passages. Inside, they can wander around or chill out on pelts, tuning in on earphones to Sámi elders sharing narratives and insights.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why the nose? It might appear playful, but the exhibit pays tribute to a rarely recognized biological feat: scientists have discovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the surrounding air it inhales by 80 degrees celsius, helping the creature to endure in extreme Arctic temperatures. Scaling the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara says, "creates a feeling of inferiority that you as a human being are not in control over nature." The artist is a ex- journalist, young adult author, and rights advocate, who comes from a herding family in northern Norway. "Maybe that creates the possibility to shift your outlook or trigger some humility," she continues.

A Tribute to Sámi Culture

The labyrinthine installation is part of a components in Sara's engaging exhibition honoring the heritage, understanding, and philosophy of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi count approximately 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, Finland, Sweden, and the Kola region (an territory they call Sápmi). They have experienced discrimination, cultural suppression, and suppression of their tongue by all four states. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an animal at the core of the Sámi belief system and creation story, the art also spotlights the people's challenges relating to the global warming, property rights, and imperialism.

Metaphor in Elements

On the lengthy access slope, there's a towering, eighty-five-foot sculpture of pelts trapped by power and light cables. It can be read as a analogy for the political and economic systems restricting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this section of the exhibit, titled Goavve-, relates to the Sámi word for an harsh environmental condition, wherein thick layers of ice develop as varying conditions melt and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' main winter food, moss. This phenomenon is a result of climate change, which is taking place up to at an accelerated rate in the Polar region than globally.

Three years ago, I met with Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi herders on their motorized sleds in chilly conditions as they hauled carts of food pellets on to the barren Arctic plains to dispense manually. The reindeer surrounded round us, digging the slippery ground in vain attempts for mossy bits. This expensive and labour-intensive process is having a severe influence on herding practices—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. However the alternative is malnutrition. As these icy periods become commonplace, reindeer are dying—a number from hunger, others drowning after falling into streams through unstable frozen surfaces. To some extent, the installation is a monument to them. "With the layering of components, in a way I'm introducing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Opposing Belief Systems

The sculpture also highlights the stark difference between the western view of energy as a commodity to be exploited for economic benefit and survival and the Sámi outlook of vitality as an inherent power in animals, humans, and the environment. This venue's past as a coal and oil power station is connected to this, as is what the Sámi see as environmental exploitation by Nordic countries. As they strive to be leaders for clean sources, Nordic nations have locked horns with the Sámi over the development of wind energy projects, hydroelectric dams, and extraction sites on their native soil; the Sámi assert their fundamental freedoms, ways of life, and culture are endangered. "It's hard being such a tiny group to stand your ground when the reasons are grounded in global sustainability," Sara observes. "Mining practices has co-opted the rhetoric of ecology, but yet it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to continue practices of use."

Personal Conflicts

The artist and her relatives have themselves disagreed with the Norwegian government over its tightening regulations on reindeer management. In 2016, Sara's sibling undertook a set of finally failed lawsuits over the forced culling of his animals, supposedly to stop vegetation depletion. In support, Sara developed a extended collection of pieces titled Pile O'Sápmi including a massive screen of numerous animal bones, which was shown at the 2017's event Documenta 14 and later purchased by the public gallery, where it resides in the entryway.

Creative Expression as Activism

Among the community, creative work seems the only domain in which they can be understood by outsiders. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|