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Attendees to the renowned gallery are used to unusual experiences in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have basked under an simulated sun, glided down spiral slides, and observed AI-powered jellyfish floating through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be immersing themselves in the detailed nasal chambers of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this immense space—designed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages visitors into a labyrinthine construction inspired by the expanded inside of a reindeer's nose airways. Inside, they can meander around or unwind on reindeer hides, listening on earphones to Sámi elders imparting stories and insights.

The Significance of the Nose

Why choose the nasal structure? It might appear playful, but the artwork pays tribute to a obscure natural marvel: experts have found that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can heat the ambient air it breathes in by 80 degrees celsius, enabling the creature to thrive in extreme Arctic conditions. Scaling the nose to larger than human size, Sara explains, "produces a perception of smallness that you as a individual are not in control over nature." She is a former writer, young adult author, and rights advocate, who is from a herding family in the far north of Norway. "Possibly that creates the chance to change your outlook or spark some humbleness," she adds.

A Tribute to Indigenous Heritage

The maze-like structure is one of several elements in Sara's absorbing art project showcasing the traditions, knowledge, and philosophy of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi total approximately 100,000 people ranged across northern Norway, Finland, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They have faced oppression, cultural suppression, and repression of their tongue by all four countries. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an creature at the core of the Sámi belief system and origin tale, the installation also draws attention to the people's struggles relating to the environmental emergency, property rights, and colonialism.

Metaphor in Materials

Along the lengthy access slope, there's a looming, eighty-five-foot sculpture of skins trapped by electrical wires. It represents a symbol for the political and economic systems constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part heavenly staircase, this part of the installation, named Goavve-, relates to the Sámi name for an harsh environmental condition, whereby thick layers of ice form as varying weather liquefy and refreeze the snow, encasing the reindeers' primary winter nourishment, lichen. This phenomenon is a consequence of planetary warming, which is taking place up to much more rapidly in the Far North than globally.

Previously, I visited Sara in the Norwegian far north during a goavvi winter and accompanied Sámi herders on their motorized sleds in chilly conditions as they transported containers of supplementary feed on to the exposed tundra to dispense by hand. The reindeer crowded round us, digging the slippery ground in vain for mossy bits. This expensive and laborious method is having a significant impact on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' natural survival. But the alternative is malnutrition. As goavvi winters become commonplace, reindeer are dying—some from starvation, others suffocating after sinking in lakes and rivers through thinning ice sheets. On one level, the work is a monument to them. "By overlapping of components, in a way I'm bringing the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Belief Systems

This artwork also highlights the stark difference between the industrial view of power as a asset to be harnessed for gain and survival and the Sámi worldview of energy as an innate essence in creatures, people, and nature. This venue's history as a industrial facility is connected to this, as is what the Sámi see as green colonialism by regional governments. As they strive to be leaders for sustainable power, Scandinavian countries have disagreed with the Sámi over the building of windfarms, river barriers, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi assert their fundamental freedoms, ways of life, and culture are threatened. "It's very difficult being such a small minority to protect your rights when the justifications are based on environmental protection," Sara comments. "Extractivism has adopted the discourse of environmentalism, but nonetheless it's just striving to find better ways to maintain practices of consumption."

Personal Struggles

The artist and her relatives have personally disagreed with the national administration over its ever-stricter rules on herding. A few years ago, Sara's brother embarked on a set of ultimately unsuccessful legal cases over the mandatory slaughter of his herd, supposedly to stop vegetation depletion. In support, Sara developed a multi-year set of pieces titled Pile O'Sápmi comprising a massive curtain of 400 animal bones, which was displayed at the 2017 event Documenta 14 and later purchased by the National Museum of Oslo, where it is displayed in the entryway.

The Role of Art in Activism

Among the community, visual expression appears the only sphere in which they can be listened to by people of other nations. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|