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Attendees to the renowned gallery are familiar to unusual encounters in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an artificial sun, descended down helter skelters, and seen robotic jellyfish hovering through the air. But this marks the inaugural time they will be engaging themselves in the intricate nasal passages of a reindeer. The latest artist commission for this immense space—developed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes patrons into a winding design modeled after the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nasal cavities. Upon entering, they can wander around or unwind on reindeer hides, listening on earphones to tribal seniors telling stories and insights.

Why the Nose?

Why choose the nasal structure? It could appear quirky, but the installation honors a little-known biological feat: scientists have found that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can heat the surrounding air it takes in by eighty degrees, enabling the creature to endure in inhospitable Arctic temperatures. Scaling the nose to larger than human size, Sara says, "generates a sense of smallness that you as a human being are not dominant over nature." The artist is a ex- journalist, young adult author, and land defender, who is from a pastoral family in northern Norway. "Possibly that creates the possibility to shift your perspective or trigger some modesty," she adds.

A Celebration to Traditional Ways

The maze-like design is among various features in Sara's engaging art project showcasing the heritage, science, and worldview of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Partially migratory, the Sámi total approximately 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an region they call Sápmi). They've endured discrimination, forced assimilation, and eradication of their dialect by all four nations. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi belief system and founding narrative, the work also highlights the group's challenges associated with the climate crisis, loss of territory, and external control.

Symbolism in Components

Along the lengthy entrance ramp, there's a looming, 26-meter sculpture of reindeer hides trapped by utility lines. It can be read as a analogy for the governance and financial structures constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this component of the installation, called Goavve-, relates to the Sámi word for an severe climatic event, whereby solid sheets of ice form as varying conditions liquefy and solidify again the snow, encasing the reindeers' primary winter food, fungus. This phenomenon is a result of global heating, which is happening up to at an accelerated rate in the Far North than in other regions.

Three years ago, I met with Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a severe cold period and joined Sámi pastoralists on their snowmobiles in chilly conditions as they transported carts of food pellets on to the wind-scoured Arctic plains to dispense by hand. The reindeer gathered round us, pawing the slippery ground in vain for lichen-covered pieces. This expensive and laborious method is having a severe influence on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. However the choice is starvation. As goavvi winters become routine, reindeer are perishing—some from lack of food, others submerging after plunging into streams through prematurely melting ice. In a sense, the work is a tribute to them. "With the layering of elements, in a way I'm introducing the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Diverging Worldviews

The sculpture also highlights the stark contrast between the modern interpretation of power as a commodity to be utilized for economic benefit and survival and the Sámi philosophy of vitality as an innate essence in creatures, humans, and land. This venue's past as a coal and oil power station is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi consider eco-imperialism by Scandinavian states. As they strive to be exemplars for sustainable power, Nordic nations have clashed with the Sámi over the development of windfarms, hydroelectric dams, and extraction sites on their traditional territory; the Sámi argue their human rights, livelihoods, and culture are endangered. "It's challenging being such a small minority to defend yourself when the justifications are based on environmental protection," Sara comments. "Extractivism has appropriated the discourse of ecology, but still it's just aiming to find alternative ways to maintain practices of consumption."

Personal Challenges

The artist and her kin have personally clashed with the Norwegian government over its increasingly stringent regulations on reindeer management. A few years ago, Sara's sibling embarked on a series of ultimately unsuccessful court actions over the mandatory slaughter of his animals, apparently to stop excessive feeding. To back him, Sara developed a multi-year collection of creations titled Pile O'Sápmi featuring a colossal curtain of numerous reindeer skulls, which was exhibited at the 2017's show Documenta 14 and later obtained by the national institution, where it is displayed in the entryway.

Art as Awareness

For many Sámi, art is the sole domain in which they can be understood by people of other nations. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|