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Attendees to the renowned gallery are accustomed to surprising experiences in its vast Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an artificial sun, slid down spiral slides, and witnessed robotic jellyfish drifting through the air. However this marks the first time they will be venturing 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—welcomes patrons into a labyrinthine design based on the scaled-up inside of a reindeer's nasal airways. Inside, they can stroll around or unwind on reindeer hides, tuning in on headphones to community leaders telling narratives and knowledge.

The Significance of the Nose

What's the focus on the nose? It could seem quirky, but the installation celebrates a rarely recognized natural marvel: experts have discovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the surrounding air it inhales by 80 degrees celsius, enabling the animal to thrive in inhospitable Arctic conditions. Expanding the nose to larger than human size, Sara explains, "creates a perception of insignificance that you as a person are not in control over nature." The artist is a ex- reporter, children's author, and rights advocate, who comes from a herding family in northern Norway. "Maybe that creates the possibility to shift your viewpoint or evoke some modesty," she continues.

An Homage to Traditional Ways

The maze-like design is part of a components in Sara's engaging exhibition showcasing the heritage, science, and philosophy of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi number about 100,000 people spread across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an area they call Sápmi). They have faced oppression, cultural suppression, and repression of their dialect by all four states. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the core of the Sámi belief system and founding narrative, the installation also highlights the community's challenges relating to the climate crisis, property rights, and colonialism.

Symbolism in Elements

At the lengthy access incline, there's a looming, 26-metre formation of skins entangled by electrical wires. It represents a symbol for the societal frameworks constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part celestial ladder, this section of the installation, called Goavve-, points to the Sámi term for an extreme weather phenomenon, in which thick coatings of ice appear as changing temperatures melt and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' key cold-season nourishment, moss. The condition is a outcome of global heating, which is happening up to at an accelerated rate in the Polar region than in other regions.

Three years ago, I traveled to see Sara in the Norwegian far north during a icy season and accompanied Sámi reindeer keepers on their snowmobiles in freezing temperatures as they hauled carts of food pellets on to the wind-scoured Arctic plains to dispense through labor. These animals crowded round us, digging the slippery ground in vain for lichen-covered morsels. This expensive and laborious procedure is having a significant influence on animal rearing—and on the animals' natural survival. But the other option is death. When such conditions become commonplace, reindeer are succumbing—some from starvation, others suffocating after falling into lakes and rivers through prematurely melting ice. On one level, the art is a memorial to them. "With the layering of components, in a way I'm transporting the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

This artwork also emphasizes the stark divergence between the western understanding of power as a resource to be harnessed for economic benefit and survival and the Sámi philosophy of life force as an inherent life force in creatures, people, and the environment. The gallery's history as a coal and oil power station is connected to this, as is what the Sámi see as eco-imperialism by regional governments. In their efforts to be standard bearers for sustainable power, Nordic nations have clashed with the Sámi over the building of turbine fields, water power facilities, and mines on their ancestral land; the Sámi assert their human rights, incomes, and culture are endangered. "It's very difficult being such a small minority to protect your rights when the arguments are rooted in saving the world," Sara observes. "Resource exploitation has appropriated the discourse of ecology, but still it's just striving to find better ways to continue habits of consumption."

Family Conflicts

The artist and her relatives have themselves conflicted with the state authorities over its tightening regulations on herding. A few years ago, Sara's sibling initiated a set of unsuccessful court actions over the required reduction of his herd, apparently to stop excessive feeding. In support, Sara created a four-year collection of creations named Pile O'Sápmi including a huge drape of 400 animal bones, which was exhibited at the 2017's show Documenta 14 and later purchased by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the entryway.

Creative Expression as Advocacy

For many Sámi, creative work is the sole sphere in which they can be understood by people of other nations. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|