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Attendees to the renowned gallery are familiar to surprising displays in its spacious Turbine Hall. They've relaxed under an man-made sun, slid down spiral slides, and observed robotic jellyfish hovering through the air. Yet this marks the first time they will be engaging themselves in the complex nose passages of a reindeer. The current artistic project for this cavernous space—developed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages patrons into a winding construction based on the enlarged interior of a reindeer's nasal airways. Once inside, they can meander around or relax on pelts, listening on earphones to community leaders imparting narratives and wisdom.

Why the Nose?

Why choose the nasal structure? It might seem playful, but the exhibit honors a rarely recognized scientific wonder: researchers have uncovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the incoming air it takes in by 80 degrees celsius, allowing the animal to thrive in extreme Arctic climates. Scaling the nose to larger than human size, Sara says, "creates a feeling of insignificance that you as a person are not superior over nature." She is a ex- journalist, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who is from a herding family in northern Norway. "Possibly that generates the potential to shift your outlook or evoke some modesty," she adds.

A Tribute to Indigenous Heritage

The labyrinthine structure is one of several elements in Sara's absorbing commission honoring the culture, science, and worldview of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Partially migratory, the Sámi number about 100,000 people ranged across the Norwegian north, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an region they call Sápmi). They have endured persecution, cultural suppression, and repression of their dialect by all four nations. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi cosmology and origin tale, the work also draws attention to the group's challenges relating to the environmental emergency, land dispossession, and colonialism.

Metaphor in Components

At the lengthy access ramp, there's a looming, 26-metre sculpture of reindeer hides ensnared by utility lines. It can be read as a metaphor for the societal frameworks constraining the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part celestial ladder, this component of the installation, called Goavve-, points to the Sámi name for an harsh environmental condition, whereby solid layers of ice develop as fluctuating temperatures liquefy and ice over the snow, locking in the reindeers' main winter sustenance, fungus. This phenomenon is a result of global heating, which is happening up to at an accelerated rate in the Arctic than elsewhere.

Three years ago, I visited Sara in the Norwegian far north during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi herders on their motorized sleds in freezing temperatures as they carried trailers of animal nutrition on to the barren Arctic plains to dispense through labor. The herd crowded round us, pawing the slippery ground in vain for lichen-covered bits. This expensive and labour-intensive process is having a drastic impact on animal rearing—and on the animals' natural survival. However the choice is malnutrition. When such conditions become commonplace, reindeer are dying—some from lack of food, others suffocating after falling into streams through thinning ice sheets. In a sense, the installation is a monument to them. "By overlapping of materials, in a way I'm transporting the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Diverging Perspectives

This artwork also highlights the clear difference between the industrial view of power as a resource to be exploited for economic benefit and livelihood and the Sámi worldview of life force as an innate essence in animals, people, and nature. The gallery's history as a fossil fuel plant is linked with this, as is what the Sámi view as environmental exploitation by Scandinavian states. As they strive to be standard bearers for clean sources, Scandinavian countries have clashed with the Sámi over the building of windfarms, river barriers, and digging operations on their native soil; the Sámi contend their human rights, livelihoods, and way of life are endangered. "It's challenging being such a tiny group to stand your ground when the justifications are grounded in environmental protection," Sara comments. "Resource exploitation has co-opted the language of sustainability, but still it's just striving to find more suitable ways to persist in practices of use."

Individual Challenges

She and her kin have themselves conflicted with the Norwegian government over its increasingly stringent regulations on animal husbandry. In 2016, Sara's brother embarked on a sequence of finally failed lawsuits over the required reduction of his livestock, supposedly to stop excessive feeding. In support, Sara produced a four-year set of pieces named Pile O'Sápmi featuring a colossal screen of numerous cranial remains, which was shown at the 2017 show Documenta 14 and later purchased by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the entryway.

The Role of Art in Activism

For many Sámi, art appears the sole realm in which they can be understood by outsiders. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|