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Attendees to the renowned gallery are familiar to unusual displays in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an simulated sun, slid down helter skelters, and witnessed automated sea creatures drifting through the air. However this marks the first time they will be engaging themselves in the detailed nasal passages of a reindeer. The latest artistic project for this huge space—created by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—encourages gallerygoers into a labyrinthine design inspired by the expanded interior of a reindeer's nasal passages. Once inside, they can wander around or relax on skins, tuning in on earphones to tribal seniors sharing tales and wisdom.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

What's the focus on the nose? It might seem playful, but the installation pays tribute to a little-known biological feat: experts have discovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can heat the ambient air it inhales by eighty degrees, allowing the creature to endure in harsh Arctic climates. Scaling the nose to bigger than a person, Sara says, "produces a feeling of smallness that you as a human being are not superior over nature." The artist is a former journalist, young adult author, and rights advocate, who hails from a pastoral family in the far north of Norway. "Possibly that generates the potential to shift your perspective or spark some modesty," she continues.

An Homage to Indigenous Heritage

The winding structure is part of a elements in Sara's absorbing commission honoring the traditions, understanding, and philosophy of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi total about 100,000 people ranged across northern Norway, Finland, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an region they call Sápmi). They have endured oppression, cultural suppression, and suppression of their tongue by all four states. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi belief system and creation story, the art also draws attention to the people's issues connected to the climate crisis, land dispossession, and imperialism.

Metaphor in Elements

On the extended entrance ramp, there's a looming, 26-metre structure of reindeer hides ensnared by electrical wires. It represents a analogy for the governance and financial structures restricting the Sámi. Part pylon, part spiritual ascent, this section of the installation, called Goavve-, relates to the Sámi word for an harsh environmental condition, wherein solid coatings of ice form as varying conditions liquefy and refreeze the snow, trapping the reindeers' main winter nourishment, lichen. The condition is a consequence of global heating, which is taking place up to much more rapidly in the Polar region than elsewhere.

Previously, I traveled to see Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a severe cold period and joined Sámi reindeer keepers on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they hauled carts of animal nutrition on to the exposed Arctic plains to distribute manually. The reindeer gathered round us, pawing the icy ground in futility for mossy pieces. This costly and labour-intensive method is having a drastic effect on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' natural survival. But the other option is death. As goavvi winters become commonplace, reindeer are succumbing—some from hunger, others drowning after plunging into streams through thinning ice sheets. In a sense, the art is a monument to them. "Through the stacking of materials, in a way I'm transporting the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

The installation also emphasizes the sharp contrast between the western view of energy as a commodity to be harnessed for profit and livelihood and the Sámi worldview of life force as an natural power in creatures, humans, and land. This venue's legacy as a industrial facility is linked with this, as is what the Sámi see as eco-imperialism by Nordic countries. As they strive to be exemplars for sustainable power, Nordic nations have clashed with the Sámi over the development of wind energy projects, river barriers, and mines on their native soil; the Sámi contend their human rights, livelihoods, and traditions are endangered. "It's hard being such a tiny group to protect your rights when the reasons are grounded in environmental protection," Sara notes. "Extractivism has co-opted the rhetoric of sustainability, but still it's just attempting to find alternative ways to continue patterns of consumption."

Family Challenges

She and her kin have personally conflicted with the national administration over its ever-stricter regulations on reindeer management. In 2016, Sara's brother initiated a series of finally failed lawsuits over the forced culling of his livestock, ostensibly to stop overgrazing. In support, Sara created a multi-year series of creations called Pile O'Sápmi featuring a huge screen of numerous reindeer skulls, which was displayed at the 2017's art exhibition Documenta 14 and later obtained by the public gallery, where it hangs in the lobby.

Art as Advocacy

For numerous Indigenous people, art is the only domain in which they can be listened to by outsiders. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|