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Visitors to Tate Modern are used to unusual displays in its vast Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an man-made sun, slid down helter skelters, and seen AI-powered sea creatures drifting through the air. But this marks the inaugural time they will be engaging themselves in the intricate nose cavities of a reindeer. The latest creative installation for this immense space—designed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes gallerygoers into a maze-like structure modeled after the scaled-up inside of a reindeer's nasal cavities. Upon entering, they can meander around or chill out on skins, tuning in on earphones to tribal seniors imparting narratives and insights.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why the nose? It may seem playful, but the exhibit pays tribute to a obscure scientific wonder: experts have found that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can heat the ambient air it breathes in by 80 degrees celsius, allowing the creature to thrive in harsh Arctic temperatures. Expanding the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara says, "generates a sense of smallness that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." The artist is a former reporter, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who hails from a herding family in the far north of Norway. "Perhaps that fosters the potential to shift your viewpoint or trigger some modesty," she continues.

A Celebration to Sámi Culture

The labyrinthine design is part of a features in Sara's absorbing commission showcasing the heritage, science, and beliefs of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Partially migratory, the Sámi total about 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, Finland, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They have faced oppression, forced assimilation, and eradication of their tongue by all four countries. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi belief system and creation story, the art also highlights the people's challenges associated with the climate crisis, property rights, and imperialism.

Symbolism in Components

On the long access slope, there's a looming, 26-meter structure of pelts entangled by electrical wires. It serves as a metaphor for the societal frameworks constraining the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part celestial ladder, this part of the artwork, called Goavve-, relates to the Sámi name for an harsh environmental condition, in which solid coatings of ice form as fluctuating weather melt and refreeze the snow, encasing the reindeers' primary cold-season sustenance, lichen. This phenomenon is a outcome of planetary warming, which is happening up to much more rapidly in the Polar region than in other regions.

Three years ago, I met with Sara in the Norwegian far north during a icy season and joined Sámi pastoralists on their motorized sleds in chilly conditions as they transported trailers of supplementary feed on to the barren frozen landscape to provide by hand. These animals gathered round us, scratching the frozen ground in vain for vegetative bits. This expensive and labour-intensive method is having a severe effect on herding practices—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. However the other option is malnutrition. As goavvi winters become routine, reindeer are perishing—a number from starvation, others drowning after sinking in water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. In a sense, the work is a monument to them. "By overlapping of elements, in a way I'm bringing the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

The installation also emphasizes the stark divergence between the western interpretation of electricity as a commodity to be utilized for economic benefit and livelihood and the Sámi worldview of vitality as an natural power in animals, individuals, and nature. Tate Modern's history as a fossil fuel plant is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi see as environmental exploitation by Nordic countries. In their efforts to be exemplars for renewable energy, Scandinavian countries have locked horns with the Sámi over the building of windfarms, river barriers, and mines on their native soil; the Sámi contend their human rights, incomes, and way of life are endangered. "It's challenging being such a small minority to stand your ground when the justifications are rooted in global sustainability," Sara notes. "Mining practices has co-opted the discourse of environmentalism, but yet it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to maintain habits of expenditure."

Personal Struggles

She and her relatives have personally disagreed with the state authorities over its ever-stricter rules on animal husbandry. Previously, Sara's brother embarked on a sequence of unsuccessful court actions over the mandatory slaughter of his animals, apparently to stop overgrazing. In support, Sara produced a multi-year series of creations named Pile O'Sápmi comprising a massive screen of 400 cranial remains, which was exhibited at the 2017's event Documenta 14 and later obtained by the National Museum of Oslo, where it resides in the lobby.

The Role of Art in Awareness

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