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Guests to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unusual displays in its expansive Turbine Hall. They've sunbathed under an man-made sun, glided down spiral slides, and witnessed AI-powered jellyfish hovering through the air. But this marks the first time they will be venturing themselves in the intricate nasal cavities of a reindeer. The current artistic project for this huge space—created by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites visitors into a labyrinthine structure based on the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nasal cavities. Once inside, they can stroll around or unwind on skins, listening on earphones to community leaders imparting narratives and wisdom.

The Significance of the Nose

Why the nose? It could seem quirky, but the artwork honors a obscure scientific wonder: scientists have found that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the surrounding air it takes in by 80°C, helping the creature to survive in extreme Arctic conditions. Scaling the nose to bigger than a person, Sara notes, "creates a perception of insignificance that you as a human being are not superior over nature." Sara is a ex- reporter, children's author, and rights advocate, who is from a herding family in the far north of Norway. "Possibly that fosters the chance to alter your outlook or spark some humility," she adds.

A Tribute to Traditional Ways

The maze-like structure is part of a features in Sara's engaging commission showcasing the heritage, understanding, and beliefs of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi number roughly 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Kola region (an region they call Sápmi). They've experienced oppression, forced assimilation, and eradication of their dialect by all four countries. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi mythology and origin tale, the art also highlights the people's struggles relating to the climate crisis, land dispossession, and colonialism.

Symbolism in Components

Along the lengthy entrance slope, there's a towering, 26-metre structure of reindeer hides ensnared by electrical wires. It represents a metaphor for the political and economic systems limiting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this component of the artwork, named Goavve-, points to the Sámi word for an extreme weather phenomenon, in which thick coatings of ice appear as changing weather thaw and solidify again the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary winter food, moss. This phenomenon is a consequence of planetary warming, which is taking place up to four times faster in the Far North than globally.

Three years ago, I met with Sara in a remote town during a severe cold period and went with Sámi pastoralists on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they hauled containers of supplementary feed on to the barren frozen landscape to distribute through labor. These animals gathered round us, pawing the frozen ground in vain for lichen-covered bits. This resource-intensive and labour-intensive procedure is having a drastic influence on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' independence. But the alternative is malnutrition. As goavvi winters become commonplace, reindeer are succumbing—a number from starvation, others submerging after sinking in water bodies through prematurely melting ice. On one level, the installation is a memorial to them. "Through the stacking of elements, in a way I'm introducing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Opposing Worldviews

This artwork also underscores the sharp difference between the modern understanding of energy as a commodity to be exploited for gain and survival and the Sámi philosophy of vitality as an inherent essence in animals, people, and land. The gallery's past as a industrial facility is connected to this, as is what the Sámi see as green colonialism by regional governments. In their efforts to be exemplars for sustainable power, Scandinavian countries have clashed with the Sámi over the building of windfarms, river barriers, and mines on their ancestral land; the Sámi assert their human rights, livelihoods, and traditions are endangered. "It's challenging being such a small minority to defend yourself when the arguments are rooted in global sustainability," Sara observes. "Extractivism has appropriated the discourse of ecology, but still it's just aiming to find better ways to maintain habits of use."

Personal Challenges

The artist and her kin have themselves conflicted with the Norwegian government over its tightening policies on reindeer management. Previously, Sara's brother undertook a series of unsuccessful court actions over the forced culling of his herd, ostensibly to stop excessive feeding. In support, Sara created a four-year collection of pieces titled Pile O'Sápmi including a huge screen of 400 cranial remains, which was shown at the 2017's event Documenta 14 and later obtained by the public gallery, where it hangs in the lobby.

Art as Awareness

For numerous Indigenous people, creative work seems the only domain in which they can be heard by outsiders. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|