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Guests to Tate Modern are accustomed to surprising encounters in its expansive Turbine Hall. They've sunbathed under an man-made sun, descended down spiral slides, and witnessed robotic sea creatures drifting through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be immersing themselves in the detailed nasal chambers of a reindeer. The current artistic project for this cavernous space—created by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—invites patrons into a winding construction inspired by the scaled-up interior of a reindeer's nose passages. Upon entering, they can wander around or unwind on skins, listening on headphones to tribal seniors sharing narratives and insights.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why the nose? It might sound quirky, but the exhibit pays tribute to a little-known scientific wonder: researchers have uncovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the ambient air it inhales by eighty degrees, allowing the creature to survive in harsh Arctic climates. Enlarging the nose to larger than human size, Sara says, "generates a feeling of insignificance that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." Sara is a former reporter, children's author, and rights advocate, who hails from a pastoral family in northern Norway. "Perhaps that fosters the possibility to shift your perspective or evoke some humility," she states.

A Tribute to Traditional Ways

The maze-like installation is part of a elements in Sara's absorbing exhibition celebrating the traditions, science, and beliefs of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Partially migratory, the Sámi count roughly 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an region they call Sápmi). They have endured discrimination, integration policies, and eradication of their language by all four countries. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the heart of the Sámi cosmology and origin tale, the work also highlights the people's issues associated with the global warming, loss of territory, and colonialism.

Symbolism in Elements

On the lengthy entry ramp, there's a towering, eighty-five-foot sculpture of skins ensnared by power and light cables. It represents a symbol for the political and economic systems constraining the Sámi. Part pylon, part heavenly staircase, this component of the exhibit, called Goavve-, relates to the Sámi name for an extreme weather phenomenon, whereby solid coatings of ice form as changing temperatures melt and refreeze the snow, locking in the reindeers' key cold-season sustenance, moss. The condition is a result of planetary warming, which is happening up to at an accelerated rate in the Polar region than in other regions.

Previously, I visited Sara in the Norwegian far north during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi pastoralists on their motorized sleds in freezing temperatures as they hauled trailers of animal nutrition on to the barren frozen landscape to provide through labor. The reindeer crowded round us, scratching the icy ground in futility for vegetative bits. This expensive and demanding process is having a drastic effect on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' natural survival. However the other option is malnutrition. As these icy periods become commonplace, reindeer are perishing—some from lack of food, others drowning after plunging into water bodies through thinning ice sheets. In a sense, the work is a memorial to them. "Through the stacking of materials, in a way I'm transporting the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

This artwork also underscores the sharp difference between the modern interpretation of electricity as a commodity to be exploited for gain and livelihood and the Sámi philosophy of life force as an natural life force in creatures, individuals, and land. Tate Modern's history as a industrial facility is connected to this, as is what the Sámi view as eco-imperialism by Scandinavian states. In their efforts to be standard bearers for renewable energy, Nordic nations have locked horns with the Sámi over the construction of windfarms, water power facilities, and mines on their native soil; the Sámi contend their fundamental freedoms, ways of life, and traditions are at risk. "It's very difficult being such a tiny group to protect your rights when the arguments are grounded in global sustainability," Sara comments. "Extractivism has appropriated the language of sustainability, but yet it's just attempting to find alternative ways to continue practices of expenditure."

Individual Struggles

Sara and her family have themselves clashed with the state authorities over its ever-stricter regulations on reindeer management. Previously, Sara's sibling undertook a sequence of ultimately unsuccessful court actions over the required reduction of his livestock, ostensibly to stop overgrazing. In support, Sara produced a multi-year set of artworks titled Pile O'Sápmi featuring a huge drape of four hundred reindeer skulls, which was exhibited at the 2017 art exhibition Documenta 14 and later purchased by the national institution, where it hangs in the entryway.

The Role of Art in Awareness

For many Sámi, art seems the sole realm in which they can be heard by the global community. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|