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Attendees to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unexpected encounters in its vast Turbine Hall. They've basked under an simulated sun, slid down helter skelters, and observed AI-powered jellyfish floating through the air. But this marks the first time they will be immersing themselves in the complex nose passages of a reindeer. The latest artistic project for this immense space—developed by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes gallerygoers into a winding structure modeled after the expanded inside of a reindeer's nose airways. Inside, they can wander around or unwind on skins, tuning in on headphones to Sámi elders imparting tales and wisdom.

Why the Nose?

What's the focus on the nose? It could appear playful, but the exhibit pays tribute to a little-known scientific wonder: experts have discovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the ambient air it breathes in by 80°C, enabling the creature to thrive in extreme Arctic conditions. Enlarging the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara says, "generates a feeling of insignificance that you as a human being are not dominant over nature." She is a former reporter, children's author, and environmental activist, who is from a reindeer-herding family in the far north of Norway. "Perhaps that generates the chance to shift your outlook or evoke some humbleness," she adds.

A Tribute to Indigenous Heritage

The maze-like installation is among various elements in Sara's absorbing art project honoring the heritage, knowledge, and philosophy of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi total approximately 100,000 people ranged across the Norwegian north, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an region they call Sápmi). They've endured discrimination, forced assimilation, and suppression of their tongue by all four nations. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the work also highlights the people's issues relating to the environmental emergency, property rights, and external control.

Symbolism in Elements

On the lengthy entrance ramp, there's a towering, eighty-five-foot formation of reindeer hides trapped by electrical wires. It can be read as a analogy for the governance and financial structures restricting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part heavenly staircase, this part of the artwork, called Goavve-, refers to the Sámi word for an severe climatic event, in which solid sheets of ice develop as varying temperatures melt and refreeze the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary cold-season sustenance, lichen. The condition is a result of global heating, which is taking place up to much more rapidly in the Arctic than in other regions.

Three years ago, I met with Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a goavvi winter and went with Sámi pastoralists on their snowmobiles in biting cold as they hauled containers of food pellets on to the exposed frozen landscape to provide manually. The herd surrounded round us, digging the icy ground in vain attempts for lichen-covered pieces. This expensive and labour-intensive process is having a severe influence on herding practices—and on the animals' natural survival. But the choice is starvation. When such conditions become routine, reindeer are dying—a number from hunger, others suffocating after falling into lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. On one level, the art is a monument to them. "With the layering of elements, in a way I'm bringing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Diverging Perspectives

The sculpture also emphasizes the clear difference between the modern interpretation of electricity as a resource to be utilized for economic benefit and existence and the Sámi philosophy of energy as an natural power in animals, humans, and land. This venue's history as a coal and oil power station is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi see as green colonialism by regional governments. As they strive to be leaders for sustainable power, these states have clashed with the Sámi over the building of wind energy projects, river barriers, and mines on their native soil; the Sámi argue their legal protections, livelihoods, and traditions are endangered. "It's hard being such a tiny group to stand your ground when the arguments are based on environmental protection," Sara comments. "Mining practices has appropriated the language of sustainability, but still it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to persist in habits of use."

Family Conflicts

She and her kin have themselves clashed with the state authorities over its tightening rules on reindeer management. Previously, Sara's brother embarked on a series of finally failed lawsuits over the required reduction of his animals, supposedly to stop vegetation depletion. To back him, Sara developed a four-year set of creations named Pile O'Sápmi comprising a colossal drape of four hundred cranial remains, which was shown at the the show Documenta 14 and later obtained by the National Museum of Oslo, where it resides in the lobby.

Creative Expression as Awareness

For numerous Indigenous people, creative work seems the only sphere in which they can be listened to by outsiders. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|