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Guests to Tate Modern are accustomed to unusual displays in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have basked under an man-made sun, descended down helter skelters, and seen robotic sea creatures hovering through the air. However this marks the initial time they will be immersing themselves in the detailed nasal cavities of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this huge space—designed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes gallerygoers into a maze-like structure based on the enlarged interior of a reindeer's nasal cavities. Upon entering, they can wander around or relax on reindeer hides, tuning in on headphones to community leaders sharing narratives and knowledge.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why choose the nasal structure? It may sound whimsical, but the exhibit honors a rarely recognized scientific wonder: scientists have found that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the surrounding air it inhales by eighty degrees, allowing the creature to endure in extreme Arctic climates. Scaling the nose to larger than human size, Sara explains, "creates a feeling of inferiority that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." She is a ex- reporter, writer for kids, and rights advocate, who comes from a reindeer-herding family in the far north of Norway. "Perhaps that creates the potential to alter your viewpoint or spark some humility," she continues.

An Homage to Indigenous Heritage

The winding installation is among various features in Sara's engaging exhibition honoring the traditions, understanding, and beliefs of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi total about 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an region they call Sápmi). They have faced persecution, cultural suppression, and suppression of their dialect by all four states. Through highlighting the reindeer, an animal at the center of the Sámi cosmology and creation story, the installation also spotlights the people's struggles relating to the environmental emergency, property rights, and external control.

Symbolism in Elements

On the long access incline, there's a soaring, 26-meter formation of pelts ensnared by power and light cables. It serves as a analogy for the political and economic systems limiting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part heavenly staircase, this section of the artwork, named Goavve-, relates to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, wherein dense sheets of ice develop as fluctuating conditions liquefy and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' main winter food, lichen. This phenomenon is a consequence of planetary warming, which is happening up to four times faster in the Polar region than globally.

Previously, I visited Sara in the Norwegian far north during a icy season and joined Sámi pastoralists on their snowmobiles in freezing temperatures as they hauled containers of supplementary feed on to the exposed Arctic plains to distribute by hand. The herd gathered round us, pawing the icy ground in vain attempts for lichen-covered morsels. This expensive and laborious procedure is having a drastic impact on herding practices—and on the animals' independence. However the alternative is death. When such conditions become frequent, reindeer are succumbing—some from lack of food, others drowning after falling into water bodies through thinning ice sheets. To some extent, the work is a monument to them. "With the layering of components, in a way I'm bringing the condition to London," says Sara.

Diverging Perspectives

The installation also underscores the stark divergence between the modern view of power as a asset to be harnessed for gain and existence and the Sámi worldview of vitality as an natural life force in animals, humans, and land. Tate Modern's past as a coal and oil power station is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi consider environmental exploitation by Nordic countries. In their efforts to be standard bearers for clean sources, Scandinavian countries have locked horns with the Sámi over the development of wind energy projects, hydroelectric dams, and mines on their ancestral land; the Sámi argue their fundamental freedoms, incomes, and traditions are threatened. "It's challenging being such a tiny group to protect your rights when the reasons are rooted in global sustainability," Sara comments. "Mining practices has appropriated the rhetoric of ecology, but yet it's just attempting to find better ways to continue practices of use."

Individual Struggles

She and her family have personally clashed with the state authorities over its tightening policies on herding. Previously, Sara's brother initiated a sequence of ultimately unsuccessful lawsuits over the forced culling of his herd, apparently to stop excessive feeding. As a show of solidarity, Sara developed a extended set of artworks titled Pile O'Sápmi including a colossal curtain of numerous reindeer skulls, which was displayed at the 2017 show Documenta 14 and later obtained by the National Museum of Oslo, where it resides in the lobby.

Creative Expression as Activism

For many Sámi, visual expression is the sole domain in which they can be listened to by people of other nations. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|