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Visitors to the renowned gallery are used to unusual encounters in its expansive Turbine Hall. They've sunbathed under an man-made sun, descended down amusement rides, and observed AI-powered sea creatures hovering through the air. But this marks the inaugural time they will be immersing themselves in the detailed nasal cavities of a reindeer. The current creative installation for this cavernous space—developed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages gallerygoers into a winding design modeled after the scaled-up inside of a reindeer's nasal cavities. Once inside, they can wander around or chill out on skins, listening on earphones to community leaders sharing narratives and knowledge.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why choose the nasal structure? It may seem whimsical, but the artwork celebrates a little-known natural marvel: experts have uncovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the ambient air it inhales by 80 degrees celsius, helping the creature to thrive in inhospitable Arctic conditions. Enlarging the nose to bigger than a person, Sara says, "creates a feeling of inferiority that you as a individual are not superior over nature." The artist is a ex- reporter, children's author, and land defender, who hails from a herding family in the far north of Norway. "Maybe that creates the possibility to change your perspective or trigger some humbleness," she states.

An Homage to Traditional Ways

The winding installation is one of several features in Sara's immersive art project honoring the traditions, science, and worldview of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi count approximately 100,000 people spread across northern Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an territory they call Sápmi). They have endured persecution, integration policies, and repression of their language by all four countries. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi cosmology and creation story, the installation also spotlights the people's issues relating to the climate crisis, land dispossession, and external control.

Metaphor in Materials

Along the lengthy access slope, there's a towering, 26-meter sculpture of reindeer hides trapped by electrical wires. It serves as a symbol for the political and economic systems restricting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part heavenly staircase, this part of the exhibit, titled Goavve-, relates to the Sámi name for an extreme weather phenomenon, wherein dense sheets of ice develop as varying temperatures melt and ice over the snow, encasing the reindeers' key cold-season nourishment, fungus. The condition is a result of global heating, which is occurring up to four times faster in the Polar region than elsewhere.

A few years back, I traveled to see Sara in a remote town during a icy season and joined Sámi pastoralists on their snowmobiles in biting cold as they carried carts of supplementary feed on to the barren Arctic plains to distribute manually. The reindeer gathered round us, digging the frozen ground in vain for vegetative pieces. This costly and labour-intensive process is having a drastic impact on herding practices—and on the animals' independence. But the other option is malnutrition. When such conditions become frequent, reindeer are perishing—some from hunger, others submerging after sinking in lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. In a sense, the art is a tribute to them. "With the layering of materials, in a way I'm introducing the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Belief Systems

The installation also emphasizes the sharp contrast between the modern view of electricity as a commodity to be exploited for economic benefit and survival and the Sámi outlook of vitality as an inherent power in animals, humans, and nature. This venue's legacy as a coal and oil power station is connected to this, as is what the Sámi view as eco-imperialism by Nordic countries. As they strive to be leaders for renewable energy, Nordic nations have locked horns with the Sámi over the development of windfarms, hydroelectric dams, and extraction sites on their traditional territory; the Sámi argue their legal protections, incomes, and culture are endangered. "It's very difficult being such a limited population to stand your ground when the arguments are grounded in saving the world," Sara notes. "Resource exploitation has adopted the language of sustainability, but yet it's just aiming to find alternative ways to persist in habits of use."

Family Challenges

She and her kin have themselves clashed with the state authorities over its ever-stricter rules on animal husbandry. In 2016, Sara's brother undertook a sequence of ultimately unsuccessful lawsuits over the required reduction of his animals, apparently to stop vegetation depletion. To back him, Sara developed a extended collection of creations called Pile O'Sápmi comprising a massive drape of 400 animal bones, which was shown at the 2017's art exhibition Documenta 14 and later obtained by the National Museum of Oslo, where it resides in the lobby.

The Role of Art in Awareness

For numerous Indigenous people, art appears the sole domain in which they can be listened to by outsiders. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|