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Guests to Tate Modern are familiar to unusual experiences in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an simulated sun, slid down helter skelters, and observed robotic sea creatures drifting through the air. However this marks the inaugural time they will be immersing themselves in the detailed nasal cavities of a reindeer. The newest artistic project for this huge space—created by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—invites patrons into a maze-like construction based on the scaled-up interior of a reindeer's nose cavities. Inside, they can stroll around or chill out on pelts, listening on earphones to Sámi elders imparting tales and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

Why choose the nasal structure? It may sound playful, but the exhibit honors a little-known scientific wonder: experts have uncovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the incoming air it takes in by 80 degrees celsius, allowing the creature to survive in inhospitable Arctic temperatures. Scaling the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara notes, "generates a perception of insignificance that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." The artist is a ex- reporter, children's author, and rights advocate, who hails from a reindeer-herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Maybe that fosters the potential to shift your outlook or evoke some humbleness," she adds.

A Celebration to Sámi Culture

The winding installation is part of a components in Sara's absorbing exhibition honoring the heritage, knowledge, and philosophy of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi count approximately 100,000 people spread across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an area they call Sápmi). They have endured persecution, forced assimilation, and suppression of their tongue by all four countries. Through highlighting the reindeer, an animal at the core of the Sámi belief system and creation story, the installation also draws attention to the community's issues relating to the climate crisis, loss of territory, and imperialism.

Symbolism in Materials

On the long entry incline, there's a looming, 26-meter sculpture of pelts entangled by utility lines. It can be read as a metaphor for the societal frameworks limiting the Sámi. Part pylon, part spiritual ascent, this section of the installation, called Goavve-, points to the Sámi name for an severe climatic event, in which dense sheets of ice develop as varying weather liquefy and ice over the snow, encasing the reindeers' main winter sustenance, moss. This phenomenon is a outcome of planetary warming, which is taking place up to much more rapidly in the Polar region than elsewhere.

Three years ago, I met with Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a severe cold period and went with Sámi pastoralists on their snowmobiles in freezing temperatures as they transported trailers of food pellets on to the wind-scoured Arctic plains to distribute manually. The herd crowded round us, digging the icy ground in vain attempts for mossy morsels. This resource-intensive and labour-intensive procedure is having a drastic effect on animal rearing—and on the animals' natural survival. However the other option is death. As these icy periods become routine, reindeer are perishing—a number from hunger, others suffocating after plunging into lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. To some extent, the work is a monument to them. "By overlapping of components, in a way I'm introducing the condition to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Belief Systems

The sculpture also emphasizes the sharp contrast between the modern understanding of power as a commodity to be utilized for economic benefit and existence and the Sámi worldview of life force as an natural essence in animals, individuals, and the environment. Tate Modern's past as a fossil fuel plant is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi view as environmental exploitation by regional governments. While attempting to be leaders for clean sources, these states have disagreed with the Sámi over the building of turbine fields, river barriers, and mines on their traditional territory; the Sámi argue their human rights, livelihoods, and traditions are threatened. "It's very difficult being such a limited population to stand your ground when the arguments are based on environmental protection," Sara notes. "Extractivism has co-opted the language of sustainability, but yet it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to persist in practices of consumption."

Personal Conflicts

She and her family have themselves clashed with the national administration over its increasingly stringent policies on herding. Previously, Sara's brother embarked on a set of ultimately unsuccessful court actions over the forced culling of his livestock, ostensibly to stop vegetation depletion. In support, Sara produced a four-year set of creations named Pile O'Sápmi comprising a colossal screen of 400 reindeer skulls, which was exhibited at the 2017's art exhibition Documenta 14 and later purchased by the National Museum of Oslo, where it resides in the entrance.

The Role of Art in Advocacy

For many Sámi, creative work seems the sole realm in which they can be heard by outsiders. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|