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Attendees to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unusual displays in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have basked under an simulated sun, glided down spiral slides, and witnessed automated sea creatures floating through the air. But this marks the inaugural time they will be venturing themselves in the intricate nasal cavities of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this huge space—designed by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes visitors into a winding structure inspired by the scaled-up interior of a reindeer's nasal cavities. Once inside, they can wander around or chill out on skins, tuning in on headphones to community leaders sharing stories and insights.

Why the Nose?

What's the focus on the nose? It could sound playful, but the exhibit celebrates a little-known scientific wonder: experts have discovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the ambient air it breathes in by 80 degrees celsius, helping the creature to thrive in harsh Arctic climates. Scaling the nose to larger than human size, Sara notes, "generates a feeling of inferiority that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." The artist is a ex- reporter, writer for kids, and land defender, who hails from a pastoral family in northern Norway. "Maybe that creates the chance to shift your outlook or trigger some humility," she adds.

A Celebration to Sámi Culture

The maze-like installation is one of several elements in Sara's immersive art project honoring the heritage, understanding, and worldview of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Partially migratory, the Sámi number approximately 100,000 people spread across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They have endured discrimination, cultural suppression, and suppression of their dialect by all four states. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the heart of the Sámi belief system and founding narrative, the art also draws attention to the people's challenges relating to the global warming, loss of territory, and imperialism.

Symbolism in Materials

Along the extended access incline, there's a towering, 26-meter sculpture of skins entangled by electrical wires. It can be read as a symbol for the political and economic systems constraining the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part spiritual ascent, this part of the installation, titled Goavve-, points to the Sámi term for an harsh environmental condition, whereby dense coatings of ice develop as changing temperatures thaw and ice over the snow, locking in the reindeers' main winter food, fungus. This phenomenon is a consequence of planetary warming, which is occurring up to four times faster in the Far North than elsewhere.

A few years back, I visited Sara in the Norwegian far north during a goavvi winter and went with Sámi reindeer keepers on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they hauled carts of food pellets on to the wind-scoured tundra to dispense by hand. The herd surrounded round us, scratching the slippery ground in futility for lichen-covered pieces. This expensive and labour-intensive process is having a severe influence on herding practices—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. However the other option is death. As these icy periods become commonplace, reindeer are perishing—a number from hunger, others drowning after falling into water bodies through thinning ice sheets. To some extent, the installation is a monument to them. "Through the stacking of elements, in a way I'm transporting the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Perspectives

The sculpture also highlights the stark difference between the industrial view of power as a resource to be harnessed for profit and livelihood and the Sámi philosophy of energy as an inherent power in creatures, individuals, and land. This venue's past as a fossil fuel plant is connected to this, as is what the Sámi view as eco-imperialism by Nordic countries. In their efforts to be exemplars for renewable energy, Scandinavian countries have locked horns with the Sámi over the construction of windfarms, hydroelectric dams, and extraction sites on their traditional territory; the Sámi argue their fundamental freedoms, livelihoods, and way of life are at risk. "It's hard being such a small minority to protect your rights when the arguments are grounded in environmental protection," Sara observes. "Resource exploitation has appropriated the rhetoric of ecology, but still it's just striving to find better ways to maintain habits of consumption."

Personal Struggles

The artist and her family have personally disagreed with the national administration over its ever-stricter policies on herding. A few years ago, Sara's brother undertook a series of ultimately unsuccessful legal cases over the required reduction of his herd, apparently to stop excessive feeding. As a show of solidarity, Sara created a multi-year collection of creations called Pile O'Sápmi comprising a colossal screen of four hundred reindeer skulls, which was displayed at the 2017's event Documenta 14 and later acquired by the national institution, where it is displayed in the entryway.

Art as Awareness

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