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Visitors to Tate Modern are accustomed to unexpected encounters in its expansive Turbine Hall. They've relaxed under an man-made sun, slid down spiral slides, and seen robotic sea creatures hovering through the air. But this marks the initial time they will be engaging themselves in the detailed nasal cavities of a reindeer. The latest artistic project for this immense space—created by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites gallerygoers into a winding design modeled after the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nasal airways. Upon entering, they can stroll around or relax on skins, tuning in on headphones to tribal seniors sharing narratives and wisdom.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

What's the focus on the nose? It might sound quirky, but the exhibit pays tribute to a obscure biological feat: experts have uncovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can heat the ambient air it breathes in by 80 degrees celsius, enabling the creature to thrive in harsh Arctic conditions. Scaling the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara explains, "produces a perception of inferiority that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." She is a ex- writer, children's author, and rights advocate, who is from a herding family in the far north of Norway. "Maybe that fosters the chance to alter your outlook or trigger some humility," she adds.

A Celebration to Sámi Culture

The winding structure is one of several features in Sara's engaging commission showcasing the traditions, knowledge, and beliefs of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi number roughly 100,000 people spread across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an region they call Sápmi). They have endured persecution, integration policies, and suppression of their tongue by all four countries. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi belief system and creation story, the art also spotlights the people's issues associated with the global warming, land dispossession, and imperialism.

Metaphor in Components

Along the extended entrance incline, there's a towering, eighty-five-foot structure of pelts trapped by utility lines. It can be read as a analogy for the societal frameworks limiting the Sámi. Part pylon, part heavenly staircase, this component of the installation, named Goavve-, refers to the Sámi word for an extreme weather phenomenon, in which dense sheets of ice appear as changing conditions liquefy and refreeze the snow, encasing the reindeers' key cold-season food, moss. This phenomenon is a consequence of global heating, which is taking place up to four times faster in the Far North than in other regions.

A few years back, I traveled to see Sara in the Norwegian far north during a goavvi winter and joined Sámi herders on their Arctic vehicles in chilly conditions as they hauled containers of supplementary feed on to the wind-scoured tundra to distribute by hand. The herd crowded round us, scratching the icy ground in vain attempts for lichen-covered pieces. This costly and laborious method is having a drastic effect on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. Yet the choice is death. As these icy periods become routine, reindeer are dying—some from hunger, others submerging after sinking in water bodies through thinning ice sheets. To some extent, the work is a tribute to them. "With the layering of components, in a way I'm bringing the condition to London," says Sara.

Opposing Worldviews

This artwork also highlights the clear contrast between the industrial view of electricity as a asset to be utilized for economic benefit and livelihood and the Sámi outlook of vitality as an natural power in animals, people, and nature. This venue's legacy as a industrial facility is connected to this, as is what the Sámi view as eco-imperialism by regional governments. As they strive to be leaders for clean sources, Scandinavian countries have clashed with the Sámi over the building of wind energy projects, river barriers, and mines on their native soil; the Sámi contend their legal protections, livelihoods, and way of life are at risk. "It's hard being such a limited population to defend yourself when the justifications are rooted in global sustainability," Sara comments. "Mining practices has co-opted the discourse of ecology, but nonetheless it's just attempting to find better ways to continue patterns of use."

Family Challenges

Sara and her kin have personally clashed with the Norwegian government over its ever-stricter policies on animal husbandry. In 2016, Sara's brother embarked on a set of ultimately unsuccessful court actions over the required reduction of his herd, ostensibly to stop vegetation depletion. In support, Sara produced a multi-year collection of artworks titled Pile O'Sápmi comprising a huge screen of 400 reindeer skulls, which was displayed at the 2017's art exhibition Documenta 14 and later acquired by the National Museum of Oslo, where it is displayed in the entrance.

Creative Expression as Activism

For numerous Indigenous people, visual expression is the only realm in which they can be heard by the global community. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|