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Guests to the renowned gallery are used to unusual displays in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an man-made sun, slid down spiral slides, and seen automated sea creatures hovering through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be immersing themselves in the intricate nose cavities of a reindeer. The newest artistic project for this huge space—developed by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes gallerygoers into a maze-like construction modeled after the expanded inside of a reindeer's nose airways. Once inside, they can wander around or chill out on pelts, listening on earphones to tribal seniors telling stories and insights.

Why the Nose?

What's the focus on the nose? It may sound quirky, but the installation pays tribute to a little-known scientific wonder: experts have uncovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the surrounding air it inhales by 80°C, helping the creature to survive in extreme Arctic temperatures. Scaling the nose to bigger than a person, Sara says, "creates a sense of inferiority that you as a person are not in control over nature." She is a ex- reporter, children's author, and environmental activist, who hails from a herding family in northern Norway. "Maybe that creates the possibility to shift your viewpoint or evoke some humility," she adds.

A Tribute to Indigenous Heritage

The labyrinthine installation is one of several elements in Sara's engaging art project honoring the traditions, knowledge, and beliefs of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi total approximately 100,000 people ranged across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an area they call Sápmi). They've endured discrimination, cultural suppression, and repression of their tongue by all four states. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi cosmology and origin tale, the work also spotlights the community's challenges relating to the climate crisis, property rights, and external control.

Meaning in Elements

On the lengthy entrance ramp, there's a looming, eighty-five-foot formation of reindeer hides ensnared by power and light cables. It represents a metaphor for the political and economic systems limiting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part celestial ladder, this component of the installation, called Goavve-, relates to the Sámi word for an severe climatic event, wherein solid layers of ice form as fluctuating conditions thaw and refreeze the snow, locking in the reindeers' key winter food, moss. The condition is a consequence of climate change, which is happening up to four times faster in the Far North than in other regions.

Previously, I met with Sara in a remote town during a icy season and went with Sámi reindeer keepers on their motorized sleds in biting cold as they carried trailers of supplementary feed on to the barren Arctic plains to distribute by hand. The reindeer gathered round us, digging the frozen ground in vain attempts for mossy bits. This expensive and labour-intensive process is having a drastic influence on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the choice is death. As goavvi winters become commonplace, reindeer are dying—some from hunger, others suffocating after sinking in lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. In a sense, the work is a monument to them. "By overlapping of materials, in a way I'm transporting the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Worldviews

The installation also emphasizes the sharp divergence between the industrial understanding of power as a resource to be harnessed for profit and survival and the Sámi outlook of vitality as an natural essence in creatures, people, and the environment. This venue's history as a coal and oil power station is connected to this, as is what the Sámi consider green colonialism by regional governments. In their efforts to be exemplars for sustainable power, Scandinavian countries have disagreed with the Sámi over the development of wind energy projects, river barriers, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi assert their legal protections, ways of life, and culture are threatened. "It's challenging being such a limited population to defend yourself when the arguments 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 maintain habits of expenditure."

Individual Struggles

Sara and her kin have themselves conflicted with the state authorities over its ever-stricter policies on animal husbandry. Previously, Sara's sibling embarked on a series of unsuccessful lawsuits over the mandatory slaughter of his herd, ostensibly to stop overgrazing. In support, Sara produced a multi-year set of pieces titled Pile O'Sápmi comprising a huge curtain of 400 animal bones, which was displayed at the the event Documenta 14 and later obtained by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the entryway.

Creative Expression as Activism

For numerous Indigenous people, creative work seems the only domain in which they can be listened to by the global community. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|