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Guests to the renowned gallery are accustomed to surprising displays in its vast Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an simulated sun, slid down helter skelters, and observed AI-powered jellyfish floating through the air. However this marks the inaugural time they will be immersing themselves in the complex nose cavities of a reindeer. The latest artistic project for this immense space—designed by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—encourages patrons into a winding construction inspired by the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nose passages. Once inside, they can stroll around or chill out on reindeer hides, tuning in on earphones to community leaders imparting tales and knowledge.

The Significance of the Nose

Why choose the nasal structure? It could seem quirky, but the installation honors a obscure scientific wonder: experts have found that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the ambient air it inhales by 80°C, enabling the creature to endure in harsh Arctic climates. Enlarging the nose to bigger than a person, Sara says, "creates a perception of smallness that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." Sara is a former journalist, writer for kids, and land defender, who hails from a pastoral family in the far north of Norway. "Perhaps that creates the possibility to alter your outlook or spark some humbleness," she states.

A Celebration to Sámi Culture

The labyrinthine structure is part of a components in Sara's immersive commission celebrating the heritage, understanding, and beliefs of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Partially migratory, the Sámi total roughly 100,000 people ranged across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an area they call Sápmi). They have experienced discrimination, integration policies, and suppression of their tongue by all four nations. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the installation also spotlights the community's struggles associated with the climate crisis, loss of territory, and external control.

Metaphor in Elements

On the extended entrance slope, there's a soaring, 26-meter structure of pelts trapped by power and light cables. It can be read as a analogy for the societal frameworks constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this section of the exhibit, called Goavve-, points to the Sámi term for an extreme weather phenomenon, whereby dense sheets of ice appear as varying temperatures melt and refreeze the snow, trapping the reindeers' main winter nourishment, fungus. Goavvi is a result of global heating, which is occurring up to at an accelerated rate in the Far North than elsewhere.

Previously, I visited Sara in a remote town during a goavvi winter and went with Sámi herders on their snowmobiles in freezing temperatures as they hauled trailers of animal nutrition on to the exposed frozen landscape to distribute manually. The herd surrounded round us, scratching the icy ground in futility for lichen-covered bits. This costly and demanding procedure is having a significant influence on herding practices—and on the animals' natural survival. But the alternative is malnutrition. When such conditions become commonplace, reindeer are succumbing—some from starvation, others suffocating after sinking in streams through prematurely melting ice. On one level, the work is a monument to them. "With the layering of materials, in a way I'm transporting the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Diverging Worldviews

The installation also highlights the sharp difference between the western view of electricity as a commodity to be harnessed for economic benefit and livelihood and the Sámi worldview of energy as an inherent power in creatures, individuals, and land. The gallery's history as a coal and oil power station is linked with this, as is what the Sámi see as eco-imperialism by regional governments. While attempting to be leaders for clean sources, these states have locked horns with the Sámi over the construction of turbine fields, water power facilities, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi contend their legal protections, ways of life, and way of life are threatened. "It's hard being such a small minority to protect your rights when the arguments are based on environmental protection," Sara observes. "Mining practices has adopted the discourse of sustainability, but still it's just aiming to find better ways to persist in practices of consumption."

Family Challenges

She and her family have personally clashed with the state authorities over its ever-stricter regulations on herding. A few years ago, Sara's brother initiated a set of unsuccessful legal cases over the mandatory slaughter of his herd, ostensibly to stop vegetation depletion. In support, Sara produced a four-year collection of artworks titled Pile O'Sápmi featuring a colossal drape of 400 animal bones, which was exhibited at the the art exhibition Documenta 14 and later purchased by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the entrance.

The Role of Art in Advocacy

For numerous Indigenous people, creative work is the exclusive sphere in which they can be heard by outsiders. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|