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Visitors to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unusual displays in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an man-made sun, slid down spiral slides, and witnessed AI-powered jellyfish hovering through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be immersing themselves in the complex nose chambers of a reindeer. The latest artistic project for this huge space—developed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes gallerygoers into a winding structure inspired by the expanded inside of a reindeer's nose passages. Once inside, they can meander around or chill out on skins, listening on headphones to Sámi elders imparting narratives and wisdom.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why choose the nasal structure? It might sound whimsical, but the installation honors a obscure biological feat: scientists have uncovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can heat the incoming air it takes in by 80 degrees celsius, enabling the creature to thrive in inhospitable Arctic conditions. Scaling the nose to larger than human size, Sara notes, "creates a perception of smallness that you as a human being are not dominant over nature." The artist is a former reporter, writer for kids, and land defender, who hails from a reindeer-herding family in northern Norway. "Possibly that fosters the possibility to shift your perspective or trigger some modesty," she states.

A Tribute to Sámi Culture

The winding structure is among various components in Sara's engaging exhibition showcasing the traditions, knowledge, and worldview of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi number roughly 100,000 people ranged across northern Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an territory they call Sápmi). They've endured discrimination, integration policies, and repression of their dialect by all four countries. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi belief system and founding narrative, the art also spotlights the community's struggles relating to the global warming, land dispossession, and external control.

Metaphor in Materials

At the extended entry incline, there's a looming, 26-metre formation of skins entangled by power and light cables. It serves as a symbol for the societal frameworks restricting the Sámi. Part pylon, part heavenly staircase, this part of the installation, named Goavve-, relates to the Sámi term for an harsh environmental condition, whereby dense layers of ice develop as fluctuating weather melt and solidify again the snow, encasing the reindeers' main cold-season food, fungus. This phenomenon is a consequence of climate change, which is happening up to at an accelerated rate in the Arctic than globally.

A few years back, I traveled to see Sara in the Norwegian far north during a icy season and accompanied Sámi pastoralists on their motorized sleds in freezing temperatures as they hauled containers of food pellets on to the barren frozen landscape to provide through labor. The reindeer crowded round us, pawing the frozen ground in vain for vegetative pieces. This costly and laborious method is having a significant influence on herding practices—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. However the choice is malnutrition. When such conditions become routine, reindeer are perishing—a number from lack of food, others suffocating after plunging into lakes and rivers through thinning ice sheets. In a sense, the art is a memorial to them. "With the layering of materials, in a way I'm introducing the condition to London," says Sara.

Opposing Worldviews

This artwork also emphasizes the sharp contrast between the modern understanding of energy as a asset to be exploited for economic benefit and existence and the Sámi outlook of vitality as an inherent life force in animals, humans, and nature. This venue's history as a fossil fuel plant is connected to this, as is what the Sámi consider green colonialism by regional governments. In their efforts to be exemplars for clean sources, Nordic nations have clashed with the Sámi over the construction of windfarms, water power facilities, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi assert their legal protections, incomes, and traditions are at risk. "It's challenging being such a limited population to stand your ground when the justifications are rooted in saving the world," Sara comments. "Mining practices has appropriated the discourse of environmentalism, but still it's just aiming to find alternative ways to continue habits of expenditure."

Individual Struggles

Sara and her kin have personally clashed with the national administration over its tightening policies on herding. In 2016, Sara's sibling embarked on a set of ultimately unsuccessful court actions over the forced culling of his herd, supposedly to stop overgrazing. In support, Sara produced a multi-year set of creations called Pile O'Sápmi including a colossal curtain of 400 animal bones, which was shown at the 2017 show Documenta 14 and later acquired by the National Museum of Oslo, where it is displayed in the entryway.

The Role of Art in Awareness

For numerous Indigenous people, art seems the exclusive sphere in which they can be understood by the global community. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|