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Attendees to the renowned gallery are used to unusual experiences in its vast Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an artificial sun, slid down spiral slides, and seen AI-powered sea creatures floating through the air. However this marks the initial time they will be immersing themselves in the complex nose chambers of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this immense space—created by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites visitors into a winding structure inspired by the expanded interior of a reindeer's nasal airways. Once inside, they can meander around or chill out on skins, listening on headphones to tribal seniors imparting narratives and knowledge.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why the nose? It may appear quirky, but the installation honors a obscure biological feat: scientists have discovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can warm the surrounding air it takes in by 80°C, helping the creature to survive in extreme Arctic climates. Expanding the nose to bigger than a person, Sara notes, "generates a sense of smallness that you as a individual are not superior over nature." Sara is a former journalist, children's author, and land defender, who hails from a herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Perhaps that creates the chance to shift your outlook or spark some humility," she continues.

A Tribute to Indigenous Heritage

The winding structure is part of a elements in Sara's engaging exhibition honoring the traditions, knowledge, and beliefs of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi total approximately 100,000 people ranged across the Norwegian north, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an region they call Sápmi). They've experienced oppression, cultural suppression, and repression of their dialect by all four nations. Through highlighting the reindeer, an animal at the core of the Sámi cosmology and founding narrative, the work also spotlights the group's issues associated with the environmental emergency, land dispossession, and external control.

Metaphor in Elements

At the long entry ramp, there's a soaring, 26-metre sculpture of reindeer hides ensnared by power and light cables. It represents a symbol for the societal frameworks limiting the Sámi. Part pylon, part celestial ladder, this part of the artwork, titled Goavve-, refers to the Sámi name for an severe climatic event, wherein thick sheets of ice form as changing temperatures melt and refreeze the snow, trapping the reindeers' main winter food, moss. The condition is a outcome of global heating, which is happening up to much more rapidly in the Arctic than in other regions.

Three years ago, I met with Sara in the Norwegian far north during a severe cold period and went with Sámi reindeer keepers on their motorized sleds in freezing temperatures as they hauled trailers of food pellets on to the exposed Arctic plains to dispense by hand. The reindeer gathered round us, digging the icy ground in vain for lichen-covered morsels. This costly and demanding method is having a severe influence on herding practices—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. However the choice is death. As goavvi winters become frequent, reindeer are perishing—some from lack of food, others submerging after falling into water bodies through prematurely melting ice. To some extent, the installation is a monument to them. "Through the stacking of elements, in a way I'm transporting the condition to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Worldviews

The sculpture also highlights the clear difference between the modern view of electricity as a asset to be utilized for gain and livelihood and the Sámi philosophy of life force as an innate power in animals, humans, and the environment. The gallery's past as a coal and oil power station is linked with this, as is what the Sámi consider environmental exploitation by Nordic countries. In their efforts to be standard bearers for sustainable power, these states have locked horns with the Sámi over the building of wind energy projects, hydroelectric dams, and digging operations on their ancestral land; the Sámi argue their fundamental freedoms, livelihoods, and traditions are threatened. "It's challenging being such a tiny group to defend yourself when the arguments are grounded in environmental protection," Sara notes. "Mining practices has adopted the rhetoric of sustainability, but nonetheless it's just aiming to find more suitable ways to maintain habits of consumption."

Individual Struggles

The artist and her family have themselves disagreed with the state authorities over its ever-stricter regulations on animal husbandry. A few years ago, Sara's brother embarked on a series of unsuccessful court actions over the forced culling of his herd, ostensibly to stop vegetation depletion. To back him, Sara developed a multi-year collection of pieces named Pile O'Sápmi featuring a colossal screen of four hundred reindeer skulls, which was displayed at the 2017's show Documenta 14 and later acquired by the national institution, where it resides in the entrance.

The Role of Art in Awareness

For numerous Indigenous people, visual expression appears the exclusive sphere in which they can be heard by the global community. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|