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Guests to Tate Modern are accustomed to unexpected experiences in its expansive Turbine Hall. They've basked under an man-made sun, slid down spiral slides, and seen robotic jellyfish hovering through the air. However this marks the initial time they will be venturing themselves in the intricate nose cavities of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this huge space—developed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—invites gallerygoers into a maze-like design inspired by the expanded interior of a reindeer's nose passages. Upon entering, they can wander around or unwind on pelts, listening on earphones to Sámi elders imparting tales and knowledge.

The Significance of the Nose

Why the nose? It might seem quirky, but the installation honors a little-known natural marvel: experts have discovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the ambient air it takes in by 80°C, allowing the animal to survive in harsh Arctic climates. Expanding the nose to bigger than a person, Sara explains, "produces a perception of smallness that you as a person are not superior over nature." She is a ex- journalist, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who is from a reindeer-herding family in the far north of Norway. "Perhaps that generates the potential to shift your outlook or trigger some modesty," she continues.

A Tribute to Traditional Ways

The maze-like design is part of a components in Sara's immersive art project celebrating the culture, knowledge, and philosophy of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi count approximately 100,000 people ranged across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an region they call Sápmi). They've faced persecution, forced assimilation, and suppression of their language by all four nations. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the heart of the Sámi belief system and founding narrative, the art also spotlights the group's issues connected to the global warming, loss of territory, and external control.

Symbolism in Components

Along the long entry incline, there's a looming, 26-meter sculpture of reindeer hides entangled by electrical wires. It represents a analogy for the political and economic systems constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this section of the exhibit, titled Goavve-, refers to the Sámi word for an severe climatic event, in which solid layers of ice appear as varying weather liquefy and solidify again the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary winter sustenance, moss. Goavvi is a result of climate change, which is taking place up to at an accelerated rate in the Polar region than elsewhere.

Previously, I met with Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a icy season and joined Sámi herders on their snowmobiles in freezing temperatures as they carried trailers of animal nutrition on to the barren tundra to distribute manually. The herd gathered round us, pawing the slippery ground in vain for mossy morsels. This expensive and laborious method is having a significant effect on herding practices—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the alternative is starvation. As goavvi winters become commonplace, reindeer are dying—a number from starvation, others drowning after plunging into lakes and rivers through thinning ice sheets. On one level, the work is a monument to them. "Through the stacking of components, in a way I'm bringing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

The installation also underscores the sharp contrast between the industrial view of power as a commodity to be utilized for gain and existence and the Sámi outlook of vitality as an innate life force in animals, individuals, and the environment. The gallery's past as a industrial facility is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi consider eco-imperialism by Nordic countries. As they strive to be leaders for clean sources, Nordic nations have clashed with the Sámi over the building of turbine fields, river barriers, and digging operations on their native soil; the Sámi assert their fundamental freedoms, ways of life, and way of life are threatened. "It's very difficult being such a small minority to stand your ground when the justifications are based on environmental protection," Sara comments. "Mining practices has appropriated the language of environmentalism, but nonetheless it's just striving to find better ways to maintain practices of consumption."

Personal Conflicts

The artist and her family have personally disagreed with the Norwegian government over its tightening policies on herding. Previously, Sara's sibling embarked on a sequence of ultimately unsuccessful lawsuits over the required reduction of his herd, apparently to stop excessive feeding. As a show of solidarity, Sara created a multi-year series of pieces called Pile O'Sápmi featuring a huge curtain of 400 animal bones, which was shown at the 2017's art exhibition Documenta 14 and later acquired by the National Museum of Oslo, where it hangs in the lobby.

Creative Expression as Awareness

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