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Attendees to Tate Modern are familiar to unexpected displays in its vast Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an artificial sun, descended down amusement rides, and witnessed automated jellyfish drifting through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be engaging themselves in the detailed nose cavities of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this immense space—developed by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—encourages visitors into a winding structure based on the expanded inside of a reindeer's nose cavities. Upon entering, they can wander around or unwind on pelts, listening on earphones to tribal seniors imparting tales and wisdom.

The Significance of the Nose

Why the nose? It may appear playful, but the artwork pays tribute to a obscure natural marvel: experts have found that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the surrounding air it takes in by 80 degrees celsius, helping the animal to endure in extreme Arctic conditions. Expanding the nose to bigger than a person, Sara notes, "produces a feeling of insignificance that you as a human being are not dominant over nature." She is a former reporter, young adult author, and environmental activist, who comes from a reindeer-herding family in northern Norway. "Maybe that generates the chance to shift your outlook or evoke some humbleness," she states.

A Celebration to Indigenous Heritage

The labyrinthine structure is one of several elements in Sara's absorbing art project showcasing the heritage, understanding, and philosophy of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi count roughly 100,000 people spread across northern Norway, Finland, Sweden, and the Kola region (an area they call Sápmi). They have endured persecution, cultural suppression, and suppression of their dialect by all four states. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the heart of the Sámi mythology and origin tale, the work also draws attention to the group's struggles relating to the global warming, property rights, and imperialism.

Symbolism in Elements

At the lengthy entrance incline, there's a towering, 26-metre formation of pelts entangled by utility lines. It can be read as a symbol for the governance and financial structures limiting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part spiritual ascent, this section of the artwork, titled Goavve-, points to the Sámi word for an severe climatic event, in which solid layers of ice form as changing conditions thaw and ice over the snow, locking in the reindeers' key cold-season food, lichen. Goavvi is a consequence of planetary warming, which is taking place up to at an accelerated rate in the Arctic than in other regions.

A few years back, I traveled to see Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a goavvi winter and joined Sámi herders on their snowmobiles in freezing temperatures as they hauled trailers of supplementary feed on to the barren tundra to dispense through labor. The herd surrounded round us, scratching the slippery ground in vain attempts for vegetative bits. This expensive and labour-intensive process is having a drastic effect on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. However the alternative is malnutrition. When such conditions become commonplace, reindeer are succumbing—a number from starvation, others suffocating after falling into lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. On one level, the installation is a memorial to them. "With the layering of components, in a way I'm bringing the condition to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Perspectives

The installation also highlights the stark divergence between the industrial interpretation of electricity as a asset to be utilized for gain and livelihood and the Sámi outlook of life force as an natural power in animals, people, and land. The gallery's history as a industrial facility is linked with this, as is what the Sámi view as green colonialism by Nordic countries. In their efforts to be exemplars for sustainable power, Nordic nations have clashed with the Sámi over the construction of wind energy projects, hydroelectric dams, and digging operations on their native soil; the Sámi assert their human rights, incomes, and culture are at risk. "It's challenging being such a small minority to defend yourself when the justifications are rooted in global sustainability," Sara notes. "Resource exploitation has appropriated the language of ecology, but yet it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to continue patterns of use."

Family Struggles

She and her family have personally clashed with the national administration over its ever-stricter rules on animal husbandry. A few years ago, Sara's sibling initiated a sequence of finally failed court actions over the mandatory slaughter of his livestock, apparently to stop overgrazing. As a show of solidarity, Sara developed a multi-year series of artworks titled Pile O'Sápmi featuring a colossal drape of 400 reindeer skulls, which was exhibited at the 2017's event Documenta 14 and later acquired by the national institution, where it resides in the entryway.

The Role of Art in Activism

For many Sámi, creative work appears the only realm in which they can be understood by the global community. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|