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Guests to Tate Modern are used to unexpected displays in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have basked under an man-made sun, descended down amusement rides, and observed robotic sea creatures drifting through the air. But this marks the initial time they will be venturing themselves in the detailed nose chambers of a reindeer. The latest creative installation for this huge space—developed by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites patrons into a maze-like structure inspired by the enlarged interior of a reindeer's nose passages. Upon entering, they can meander around or relax on reindeer hides, tuning in on earphones to community leaders sharing tales and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

Why choose the nasal structure? It might appear playful, but the installation honors a obscure natural marvel: scientists have uncovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can heat the ambient air it takes in by 80 degrees celsius, enabling the creature to endure in inhospitable Arctic conditions. Enlarging the nose to larger than human size, Sara notes, "creates a perception of insignificance that you as a individual are not in control over nature." She is a ex- writer, writer for kids, and land defender, who hails from a herding family in the far north of Norway. "Maybe that creates the potential to shift your perspective or trigger some humility," she continues.

An Homage to Traditional Ways

The labyrinthine installation is part of a features in Sara's engaging commission honoring the culture, understanding, and beliefs of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi total approximately 100,000 people spread across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an region they call Sápmi). They've faced oppression, integration policies, and eradication of their tongue by all four states. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the center of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the work also spotlights the group's issues associated with the environmental emergency, loss of territory, and external control.

Meaning in Elements

Along the extended entrance incline, there's a towering, 26-meter structure of pelts entangled by utility lines. It can be read as a symbol for the political and economic systems restricting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part celestial ladder, this part of the artwork, titled Goavve-, points to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, wherein solid sheets of ice appear as changing weather thaw and refreeze the snow, encasing the reindeers' main cold-season nourishment, fungus. Goavvi is a consequence of global heating, which is occurring up to four times faster in the Far North than globally.

Three years ago, I met with Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi herders on their Arctic vehicles in chilly conditions as they carried carts of food pellets on to the exposed tundra to provide through labor. These animals crowded round us, scratching the frozen ground in vain for mossy morsels. This expensive and demanding process is having a severe impact on herding practices—and on the animals' independence. Yet the choice is malnutrition. As goavvi winters become routine, reindeer are perishing—some from lack of food, others suffocating after falling into water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. To some extent, the work is a memorial to them. "By overlapping of components, in a way I'm introducing the condition to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Worldviews

This artwork also highlights the stark contrast between the modern view of electricity as a commodity to be utilized for economic benefit and existence and the Sámi philosophy of vitality as an innate essence in creatures, people, and nature. Tate Modern's past as a coal and oil power station is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi consider eco-imperialism by Nordic countries. As they strive to be exemplars for clean sources, Nordic nations have disagreed with the Sámi over the development of windfarms, river barriers, and extraction sites on their traditional territory; the Sámi argue their human rights, incomes, and traditions are threatened. "It's challenging being such a limited population to protect your rights when the reasons are grounded in environmental protection," Sara comments. "Extractivism has appropriated the rhetoric of sustainability, but still it's just aiming to find better ways to maintain habits of expenditure."

Personal Challenges

Sara and her relatives have themselves disagreed with the Norwegian government over its ever-stricter policies on herding. In 2016, Sara's sibling undertook a sequence of ultimately unsuccessful legal cases over the required reduction of his animals, apparently to stop overgrazing. To back him, Sara developed a extended series of pieces called Pile O'Sápmi comprising a massive curtain of 400 animal bones, which was shown at the 2017's show Documenta 14 and later obtained by the national institution, where it hangs in the lobby.

The Role of Art in Advocacy

For many Sámi, art is the only domain in which they can be listened to by the global community. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|