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Guests to the renowned gallery are familiar to unexpected experiences in its expansive Turbine Hall. They've sunbathed under an simulated sun, descended down spiral slides, and seen automated sea creatures drifting through the air. But this marks the first time they will be venturing themselves in the intricate nasal chambers of a reindeer. The latest artist commission for this cavernous space—created by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes gallerygoers into a labyrinthine design based on the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nose airways. Inside, they can wander around or chill out on skins, listening on headphones to Sámi elders sharing tales and knowledge.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why the nose? It may sound quirky, but the installation honors a little-known scientific wonder: researchers have discovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can heat the incoming air it inhales by 80 degrees celsius, helping the animal to survive in extreme Arctic temperatures. Enlarging the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara notes, "creates a feeling of insignificance that you as a human being are not in control over nature." Sara is a former journalist, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who comes from a reindeer-herding family in northern Norway. "Possibly that creates the possibility to shift your perspective or evoke some humbleness," she adds.

A Tribute to Traditional Ways

The winding installation is part of a elements in Sara's absorbing exhibition celebrating the traditions, knowledge, and worldview of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi count approximately 100,000 people ranged across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an area they call Sápmi). They've endured oppression, cultural suppression, and eradication of their language by all four states. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the core of the Sámi cosmology and founding narrative, the installation also spotlights the group's challenges relating to the global warming, land dispossession, and external control.

Metaphor in Materials

On the extended entrance ramp, there's a soaring, 26-meter sculpture of skins entangled by power and light cables. It can be read as a symbol for the societal frameworks constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part celestial ladder, this section of the exhibit, titled Goavve-, points to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, wherein solid sheets of ice develop as varying conditions melt and solidify again the snow, encasing the reindeers' primary winter nourishment, moss. Goavvi is a outcome of global heating, which is happening up to at an accelerated rate in the Polar region than in other regions.

Previously, I met with Sara in a remote town during a severe cold period and went with Sámi herders on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they transported trailers of supplementary feed on to the wind-scoured tundra to dispense by hand. These animals crowded round us, scratching the slippery ground in vain attempts for vegetative morsels. This expensive and laborious process is having a significant influence on herding practices—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. However the other option is death. As these icy periods become commonplace, reindeer are succumbing—some from starvation, others drowning after sinking in lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. On one level, the work is a memorial to them. "Through the stacking of materials, in a way I'm transporting the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Diverging Perspectives

The sculpture also emphasizes the clear difference between the western understanding of electricity as a commodity to be utilized for profit and livelihood and the Sámi outlook of energy as an natural power in animals, people, and land. This venue's history as a fossil fuel plant is linked with this, as is what the Sámi consider eco-imperialism by Scandinavian states. As they strive to be standard bearers for sustainable power, Scandinavian countries have clashed with the Sámi over the building of windfarms, river barriers, and mines on their native soil; the Sámi contend their fundamental freedoms, incomes, and traditions are threatened. "It's challenging being such a limited population to protect your rights when the arguments are based on saving the world," Sara observes. "Resource exploitation has appropriated the rhetoric of environmentalism, but yet it's just attempting to find better ways to continue patterns of expenditure."

Individual Challenges

Sara and her kin have themselves conflicted with the state authorities over its tightening policies on reindeer management. Previously, Sara's brother undertook a series of ultimately unsuccessful lawsuits over the forced culling of his herd, apparently to stop vegetation depletion. In support, Sara produced a multi-year series of pieces called Pile O'Sápmi comprising a massive curtain of four hundred reindeer skulls, which was displayed at the 2017's art exhibition Documenta 14 and later obtained by the public gallery, where it resides in the entryway.

Creative Expression as Activism

For numerous Indigenous people, creative work is 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|