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Guests to Tate Modern are accustomed to unusual encounters in its vast Turbine Hall. They've sunbathed under an man-made sun, glided down spiral slides, and witnessed robotic sea creatures drifting through the air. Yet this marks the initial time they will be venturing themselves in the intricate nose cavities of a reindeer. The current creative installation for this immense space—designed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—invites gallerygoers into a maze-like construction modeled after the expanded interior of a reindeer's nose airways. Once inside, they can stroll around or chill out on skins, listening on earphones to community leaders sharing tales and insights.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why the nose? It might appear whimsical, but the installation honors a obscure natural marvel: experts have found that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can heat the incoming air it breathes in by 80°C, helping the animal to thrive in extreme Arctic conditions. Enlarging the nose to larger than human size, Sara notes, "produces a feeling of smallness that you as a individual are not in control over nature." Sara is a former journalist, young adult author, and environmental activist, who is from a reindeer-herding family in northern Norway. "Possibly that fosters the potential to change your outlook or evoke some humbleness," she continues.

A Celebration to Indigenous Heritage

The winding installation is among various elements in Sara's absorbing commission showcasing the traditions, knowledge, and beliefs of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi count roughly 100,000 people spread across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an area they call Sápmi). They have faced oppression, integration policies, and repression of their tongue by all four states. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an animal at the heart of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the installation also draws attention to the community's issues relating to the environmental emergency, property rights, and external control.

Meaning in Elements

At the extended entry incline, there's a soaring, eighty-five-foot sculpture of skins ensnared by electrical wires. It serves as a symbol for the governance and financial structures restricting the Sámi. Part pylon, part heavenly staircase, this part of the artwork, titled Goavve-, relates to the Sámi name for an extreme weather phenomenon, whereby dense coatings of ice develop as varying conditions thaw and refreeze the snow, trapping the reindeers' key cold-season food, lichen. This phenomenon is a result of climate change, which is taking place up to at an accelerated rate in the Arctic than in other regions.

Previously, I traveled to see Sara in the Norwegian far north during a icy season and accompanied Sámi herders on their motorized sleds in chilly conditions as they carried trailers of animal nutrition on to the exposed frozen landscape to dispense through labor. These animals surrounded round us, scratching the slippery ground in vain attempts for mossy bits. This costly and demanding process is having a severe impact on herding practices—and on the animals' independence. However the choice is death. When such conditions become commonplace, reindeer are dying—a number from starvation, others submerging after sinking in lakes and rivers through thinning ice sheets. To some extent, the installation is a monument to them. "With the layering of elements, in a way I'm transporting the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Worldviews

This artwork also underscores the stark difference between the modern understanding of electricity as a commodity to be utilized for economic benefit and existence and the Sámi outlook of vitality as an natural life force in creatures, humans, and nature. This venue's legacy as a industrial facility is connected to this, as is what the Sámi see as environmental exploitation by Scandinavian states. In their efforts to be leaders for renewable energy, Scandinavian countries have locked horns with the Sámi over the development of wind energy projects, river barriers, and extraction sites on their traditional territory; the Sámi contend their fundamental freedoms, livelihoods, and traditions are threatened. "It's very difficult being such a limited population to stand your ground when the arguments are based on environmental protection," Sara observes. "Extractivism has appropriated the language of environmentalism, but nonetheless it's just attempting to find better ways to maintain habits of expenditure."

Individual Struggles

The artist and her relatives have themselves conflicted with the state authorities over its increasingly stringent rules on reindeer management. Previously, Sara's sibling embarked on a sequence of finally failed court actions over the mandatory slaughter of his livestock, apparently to stop overgrazing. In support, Sara created a multi-year set of artworks titled Pile O'Sápmi including a massive screen of 400 animal bones, which was shown at the the show Documenta 14 and later obtained by the National Museum of Oslo, where it is displayed in the lobby.

Art as Awareness

Among the community, art appears the only realm in which they can be listened to by the global community. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|