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Visitors to Tate Modern are familiar to unusual encounters in its vast Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an simulated sun, glided down amusement rides, and seen AI-powered sea creatures floating through the air. However this marks the first time they will be immersing themselves in the complex nose passages of a reindeer. The latest artistic project for this immense space—developed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—invites visitors into a labyrinthine construction based on the scaled-up inside of a reindeer's nose cavities. Inside, they can stroll around or unwind on reindeer hides, tuning in on earphones to tribal seniors imparting stories and knowledge.

The Significance of the Nose

Why the nose? It may appear quirky, but the exhibit celebrates a obscure natural marvel: scientists have discovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the ambient air it breathes in by 80°C, allowing the animal to thrive in extreme Arctic climates. Scaling the nose to larger than human size, Sara notes, "generates a feeling of smallness that you as a human being are not in control over nature." She is a former writer, writer for kids, and land defender, who hails from a pastoral family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Maybe that creates the potential to alter your perspective or spark some humbleness," she adds.

A Tribute to Indigenous Heritage

The labyrinthine structure is among various features in Sara's immersive art project honoring the traditions, understanding, and philosophy of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi count approximately 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, Finland, Sweden, and the Kola region (an territory they call Sápmi). They've endured oppression, integration policies, and eradication of their language by all four nations. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi cosmology and creation story, the art also highlights the community's issues connected to the environmental emergency, loss of territory, and external control.

Symbolism in Materials

At the extended entrance slope, there's a looming, eighty-five-foot formation of pelts entangled by power and light cables. It serves as a analogy for the political and economic systems restricting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part celestial ladder, this part of the artwork, called Goavve-, refers to the Sámi name for an severe climatic event, in which thick coatings of ice develop as fluctuating weather thaw and solidify again the snow, encasing the reindeers' key winter food, fungus. This phenomenon is a consequence of climate change, which is happening up to four times faster in the Polar region than globally.

Previously, I visited Sara in a remote town during a goavvi winter and joined Sámi reindeer keepers on their motorized sleds in chilly conditions as they transported trailers of food pellets on to the barren tundra to distribute manually. The herd crowded round us, scratching the slippery ground in futility for mossy bits. This expensive and labour-intensive procedure is having a significant impact on herding practices—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. However the choice is malnutrition. When such conditions become routine, reindeer are succumbing—a number from hunger, others drowning after sinking in water bodies through prematurely melting ice. In a sense, the installation is a monument to them. "Through the stacking of elements, in a way I'm bringing the condition to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

This artwork also highlights the sharp divergence between the western understanding of power as a commodity to be exploited for profit and existence and the Sámi philosophy of life force as an innate essence in animals, individuals, and land. Tate Modern's legacy as a fossil fuel plant is linked with this, as is what the Sámi view as green colonialism by Scandinavian states. While attempting to be leaders for clean sources, these states have clashed with the Sámi over the building of turbine fields, river barriers, and digging operations on their ancestral land; the Sámi contend their fundamental freedoms, livelihoods, and culture are at risk. "It's challenging being such a tiny group to protect your rights when the justifications are grounded in environmental protection," Sara observes. "Mining practices has adopted the discourse of environmentalism, but yet it's just aiming to find better ways to maintain practices of expenditure."

Individual Conflicts

The artist and her family have themselves clashed with the national administration over its ever-stricter rules on herding. In 2016, Sara's sibling initiated a sequence of ultimately unsuccessful lawsuits over the forced culling of his herd, apparently to stop vegetation depletion. In support, Sara created a extended series of artworks called Pile O'Sápmi featuring a huge curtain of 400 reindeer skulls, which was exhibited at the the art exhibition Documenta 14 and later acquired by the national institution, where it is displayed in the entrance.

The Role of Art in Awareness

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