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Attendees to the renowned gallery are used to unusual experiences in its spacious Turbine Hall. They've basked under an artificial sun, glided down helter skelters, and observed automated sea creatures floating through the air. But this marks the initial time they will be immersing themselves in the complex nasal cavities of a reindeer. The latest artist commission for this cavernous space—designed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages gallerygoers into a winding design modeled after the expanded interior of a reindeer's nasal passages. Upon entering, they can wander around or relax on skins, tuning in on earphones to Sámi elders sharing tales and wisdom.

The Significance of the Nose

Why choose the nasal structure? It could appear playful, but the artwork honors a little-known natural marvel: experts have uncovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can heat the incoming air it takes in by eighty degrees, enabling the creature to endure in harsh Arctic climates. Expanding the nose to bigger than a person, Sara notes, "generates a sense of smallness that you as a human being are not in control over nature." The artist is a ex- journalist, children's author, and land defender, who hails from a pastoral family in northern Norway. "Possibly that creates the chance to alter your outlook or spark some modesty," she states.

A Celebration to Indigenous Heritage

The labyrinthine design is part of a elements in Sara's immersive commission showcasing the culture, understanding, and philosophy of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi number about 100,000 people spread across the Norwegian north, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They've faced persecution, integration policies, and eradication of their dialect by all four countries. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an animal at the heart of the Sámi belief system and origin tale, the work also draws attention to the group's struggles connected to the global warming, land dispossession, and colonialism.

Meaning in Elements

On the lengthy entrance ramp, there's a soaring, 26-metre structure of skins entangled by electrical wires. It can be read as a metaphor for the governance and financial structures constraining the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part spiritual ascent, this component of the artwork, named Goavve-, refers to the Sámi word for an harsh environmental condition, wherein dense layers of ice form as changing temperatures liquefy and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' key winter food, fungus. The condition is a consequence of climate change, which is happening up to at an accelerated rate in the Far North than elsewhere.

Previously, I visited Sara in a remote town during a goavvi winter and joined Sámi herders on their snowmobiles in freezing temperatures as they transported trailers of animal nutrition on to the wind-scoured Arctic plains to provide through labor. The reindeer gathered round us, digging the slippery ground in vain attempts for lichen-covered bits. This expensive and demanding method is having a severe effect on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the choice is death. As these icy periods become frequent, reindeer are dying—some from lack of food, others submerging after plunging into water bodies through prematurely melting ice. To some extent, the work is a memorial to them. "By overlapping of components, in a way I'm transporting the condition to London," says Sara.

Diverging Worldviews

The sculpture also highlights the clear divergence between the industrial interpretation of electricity as a commodity to be exploited for gain and survival and the Sámi outlook of vitality as an inherent essence in animals, humans, and nature. The gallery's history as a fossil fuel plant is linked with this, as is what the Sámi view as environmental exploitation by regional governments. While attempting to be standard bearers for clean sources, Scandinavian countries have locked horns with the Sámi over the construction of turbine fields, water power facilities, and mines on their traditional territory; the Sámi assert their fundamental freedoms, incomes, and traditions are endangered. "It's very difficult being such a small minority to protect your rights when the arguments are grounded in saving the world," Sara notes. "Resource exploitation has co-opted the discourse of environmentalism, but yet it's just attempting to find better ways to continue habits of consumption."

Individual Challenges

She and her family have personally disagreed with the state authorities over its ever-stricter regulations on reindeer management. In 2016, Sara's brother embarked on a sequence of unsuccessful court actions over the required reduction of his herd, apparently to stop overgrazing. As a show of solidarity, Sara produced a multi-year set of pieces titled Pile O'Sápmi including a massive drape of 400 animal bones, which was shown at the 2017 event Documenta 14 and later obtained by the national institution, where it resides in the entrance.

Creative Expression as Activism

For numerous Indigenous people, art appears the only realm in which they can be heard by the global community. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|