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Guests to the renowned gallery are accustomed to surprising displays in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an man-made sun, glided down helter skelters, and observed automated sea creatures hovering through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be immersing themselves in the intricate nose passages of a reindeer. The newest creative installation for this immense space—designed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes patrons into a labyrinthine design inspired by the enlarged interior of a reindeer's nose airways. Once inside, they can wander around or chill out on skins, tuning in on headphones to tribal seniors telling narratives and knowledge.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why the nose? It could sound playful, but the exhibit honors a obscure natural marvel: scientists have discovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can heat the surrounding air it breathes in by eighty degrees, helping the animal to endure in inhospitable Arctic climates. Scaling the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara explains, "generates a feeling of smallness that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." She is a former writer, children's author, and land defender, who hails from a pastoral family in northern Norway. "Possibly that fosters the chance to alter your outlook or trigger some modesty," she states.

An Homage to Indigenous Heritage

The labyrinthine design is part of a elements in Sara's immersive exhibition celebrating the culture, science, and philosophy of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Partially migratory, the Sámi number approximately 100,000 people ranged across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an region they call Sápmi). They have faced oppression, forced assimilation, and eradication of their language by all four countries. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi belief system and founding narrative, the installation also spotlights the people's issues associated with the climate crisis, loss of territory, and colonialism.

Symbolism in Elements

On the extended access ramp, there's a soaring, eighty-five-foot structure of pelts ensnared by utility lines. It can be read as a symbol for the political and economic systems constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this part of the installation, called Goavve-, relates to the Sámi word for an harsh environmental condition, whereby thick sheets of ice form as varying temperatures thaw and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' primary winter sustenance, fungus. The condition is a consequence of global heating, which is occurring up to much more rapidly in the Arctic than elsewhere.

Previously, I met with Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a goavvi winter and went with Sámi reindeer keepers on their snowmobiles in biting cold as they transported containers of food pellets on to the wind-scoured tundra to provide through labor. The herd crowded round us, scratching the slippery ground in futility for lichen-covered morsels. This expensive and labour-intensive method is having a severe impact on animal rearing—and on the animals' natural survival. Yet the other option is death. As goavvi winters become commonplace, reindeer are dying—some from lack of food, others drowning after falling into lakes and rivers through thinning ice sheets. On one level, the art is a memorial to them. "Through the stacking of materials, in a way I'm bringing the condition to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Perspectives

The sculpture also highlights the sharp difference between the western interpretation of electricity as a resource to be exploited for gain and existence and the Sámi worldview of vitality as an inherent essence in animals, individuals, and nature. This venue's past as a industrial facility is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi consider environmental exploitation by Nordic countries. As they strive to be leaders for clean sources, Nordic nations have disagreed with the Sámi over the construction of windfarms, hydroelectric dams, and digging operations on their native soil; the Sámi argue their legal protections, incomes, and culture are endangered. "It's challenging being such a tiny group to stand your ground when the arguments are rooted in global sustainability," Sara comments. "Resource exploitation has co-opted the language of sustainability, but still it's just aiming to find alternative ways to maintain habits of consumption."

Individual Conflicts

She and her family have themselves conflicted with the state authorities over its tightening rules on reindeer management. Previously, Sara's sibling initiated a series of ultimately unsuccessful court actions over the forced culling of his herd, supposedly to stop excessive feeding. In support, Sara produced a four-year series of creations named Pile O'Sápmi featuring a huge drape of 400 reindeer skulls, which was displayed at the the art exhibition Documenta 14 and later purchased by the national institution, where it hangs in the entryway.

Creative Expression as Advocacy

Among the community, visual expression seems the exclusive sphere in which they can be heard by outsiders. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|