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Visitors to Tate Modern are accustomed to unexpected displays in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have basked under an artificial sun, glided down amusement rides, and witnessed AI-powered sea creatures drifting through the air. However this marks the first time they will be venturing themselves in the complex nasal cavities of a reindeer. The newest artistic project for this cavernous space—created by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites patrons into a maze-like construction inspired by the expanded interior of a reindeer's nose cavities. Once inside, they can stroll around or chill out on reindeer hides, tuning in on earphones to Sámi elders imparting tales and wisdom.

The Significance of the Nose

Why choose the nasal structure? It may sound quirky, but the exhibit honors a rarely recognized scientific wonder: researchers have found that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the incoming air it inhales by eighty degrees, allowing the animal to thrive in harsh Arctic climates. Scaling the nose to bigger than a person, Sara notes, "produces a perception of insignificance that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." She is a ex- reporter, children's author, and rights advocate, who comes from a pastoral family in the far north of Norway. "Possibly that creates the potential to change your viewpoint or trigger some modesty," she states.

An Homage to Sámi Culture

The maze-like structure is part of a components in Sara's immersive commission showcasing the heritage, science, and philosophy of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi count approximately 100,000 people spread across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an region they call Sápmi). They have faced persecution, forced assimilation, and repression of their language by all four nations. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an animal at the heart of the Sámi belief system and creation story, the art also draws attention to the community's challenges connected to the climate crisis, loss of territory, and imperialism.

Metaphor in Components

Along the extended entry ramp, there's a towering, eighty-five-foot formation of pelts trapped by power and light cables. It represents a symbol for the governance and financial structures restricting the Sámi. Part pylon, part celestial ladder, this section of the artwork, called Goavve-, points to the Sámi word for an severe climatic event, wherein dense sheets of ice appear as changing weather thaw and solidify again the snow, trapping the reindeers' primary cold-season food, fungus. This phenomenon is a consequence of global heating, which is occurring up to much more rapidly in the Far North than globally.

Previously, I met with Sara in a remote town during a icy season and accompanied Sámi reindeer keepers on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they hauled containers of animal nutrition on to the barren frozen landscape to distribute through labor. The reindeer surrounded round us, scratching the icy ground in vain attempts for lichen-covered bits. This expensive and labour-intensive method is having a severe effect on herding practices—and on the animals' independence. But the alternative is death. As goavvi winters become routine, reindeer are dying—a number from starvation, others drowning after sinking in streams through thinning ice sheets. To some extent, the art is a memorial to them. "Through the stacking of materials, in a way I'm transporting the condition to London," says Sara.

Opposing Belief Systems

The sculpture also emphasizes the sharp difference between the western understanding of energy as a asset to be harnessed for gain and survival and the Sámi worldview of life force as an inherent power in creatures, people, and nature. Tate Modern's past as a fossil fuel plant is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi view as environmental exploitation by Nordic countries. In their efforts to be standard bearers for sustainable power, these states have clashed with the Sámi over the building of turbine fields, river barriers, and digging operations on their native soil; the Sámi contend their human rights, incomes, and culture are endangered. "It's very difficult being such a limited population to stand your ground when the reasons are rooted in saving the world," Sara comments. "Mining practices has adopted the language of sustainability, but still it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to persist in practices of use."

Family Challenges

She and her family have themselves clashed with the Norwegian government over its increasingly stringent policies on animal husbandry. Previously, Sara's sibling initiated a set of unsuccessful court actions over the mandatory slaughter of his livestock, ostensibly to stop vegetation depletion. As a show of solidarity, Sara created a extended collection of artworks titled Pile O'Sápmi including a massive drape of four hundred animal bones, which was exhibited at the the event Documenta 14 and later acquired by the national institution, where it is displayed in the entryway.

Art as Activism

For many Sámi, visual expression appears the exclusive sphere in which they can be heard by the global community. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|