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Guests to Tate Modern are accustomed to unexpected experiences in its vast Turbine Hall. They've relaxed under an simulated sun, slid down amusement rides, and witnessed automated sea creatures drifting through the air. Yet this marks the initial time they will be engaging themselves in the intricate nose chambers of a reindeer. The newest creative installation for this immense space—created by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites patrons into a labyrinthine design inspired by the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nose cavities. Upon entering, they can wander around or chill out on skins, tuning in on earphones to tribal seniors imparting tales and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

Why choose the nasal structure? It may appear whimsical, but the exhibit honors a rarely recognized scientific wonder: scientists have uncovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the ambient air it inhales by 80 degrees celsius, allowing the animal to endure in extreme Arctic temperatures. Enlarging the nose to bigger than a person, Sara explains, "generates a feeling of insignificance that you as a human being are not in control over nature." The artist is a former journalist, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who is from a reindeer-herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Perhaps that creates the chance to change your perspective or spark some humility," she adds.

An Homage to Traditional Ways

The maze-like design is one of several components in Sara's engaging commission celebrating the culture, science, and worldview of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi number approximately 100,000 people spread across northern Norway, Finland, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They have faced oppression, integration policies, and eradication of their tongue by all four countries. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the core of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the work also highlights the group's struggles associated with the environmental emergency, land dispossession, and colonialism.

Metaphor in Materials

Along the extended entrance ramp, there's a looming, 26-meter structure of reindeer hides ensnared by power and light cables. It represents a symbol for the political and economic systems restricting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this part of the exhibit, titled Goavve-, points to the Sámi name for an harsh environmental condition, in which thick layers of ice develop as varying conditions thaw and ice over the snow, locking in the reindeers' primary winter nourishment, fungus. This phenomenon is a outcome of planetary warming, which is occurring up to at an accelerated rate in the Polar region than in other regions.

Previously, I visited Sara in a remote town during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi pastoralists on their motorized sleds in biting cold as they carried trailers of supplementary feed on to the exposed Arctic plains to dispense by hand. The herd crowded round us, scratching the slippery ground in vain attempts for lichen-covered morsels. This expensive and demanding procedure is having a drastic effect on animal rearing—and on the animals' independence. However the choice is death. As goavvi winters become frequent, reindeer are perishing—some from lack of food, others suffocating after sinking in water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. On one level, the installation is a memorial to them. "Through the stacking of materials, in a way I'm bringing the condition to London," says Sara.

Diverging Perspectives

The installation also highlights the stark contrast between the industrial view of power as a commodity to be harnessed for gain and existence and the Sámi worldview of energy as an innate life force in creatures, humans, and land. Tate Modern's history as a fossil fuel plant is connected to this, as is what the Sámi view as green colonialism by regional governments. In their efforts to be leaders for sustainable power, Scandinavian countries have clashed with the Sámi over the construction of turbine fields, water power facilities, and extraction sites on their traditional territory; the Sámi argue their human rights, incomes, and culture are threatened. "It's very difficult being such a small minority to protect your rights when the arguments are grounded in global sustainability," Sara comments. "Mining practices has co-opted the rhetoric of ecology, but yet it's just striving to find more suitable ways to continue practices of use."

Family Struggles

Sara and her family have themselves disagreed with the Norwegian government over its increasingly stringent regulations on herding. In 2016, Sara's sibling undertook a sequence of finally failed lawsuits over the mandatory slaughter of his livestock, supposedly to stop excessive feeding. To back him, Sara developed a four-year series of artworks called Pile O'Sápmi featuring a massive drape of 400 reindeer skulls, which was exhibited at the 2017's art exhibition Documenta 14 and later purchased by the national institution, where it hangs in the lobby.

The Role of Art in Awareness

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