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Visitors to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unusual experiences in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have basked under an man-made sun, glided down amusement rides, and witnessed automated jellyfish drifting through the air. But this marks the initial time they will be engaging themselves in the detailed nose cavities of a reindeer. The current artistic project for this cavernous space—developed by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes visitors into a labyrinthine design based on the expanded inside of a reindeer's nasal cavities. Once inside, they can meander around or unwind on reindeer hides, listening on earphones to community leaders telling stories and wisdom.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why choose the nasal structure? It might appear playful, but the installation celebrates a little-known scientific wonder: scientists have uncovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can heat the surrounding air it takes in by 80°C, enabling the creature to endure in harsh Arctic climates. Enlarging the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara explains, "produces a feeling of inferiority that you as a individual are not in control over nature." She is a former reporter, writer for kids, and rights advocate, who hails from a herding family in the far north of Norway. "Perhaps that creates the potential to alter your perspective or trigger some modesty," she continues.

A Tribute to Traditional Ways

The labyrinthine structure is among various elements in Sara's absorbing art project honoring the heritage, understanding, and philosophy of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Partially migratory, the Sámi number approximately 100,000 people spread across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an region they call Sápmi). They have endured discrimination, forced assimilation, and repression of their tongue by all four nations. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi cosmology and origin tale, the art also draws attention to the community's struggles connected to the climate crisis, loss of territory, and external control.

Meaning in Materials

On the extended access ramp, there's a looming, eighty-five-foot sculpture of reindeer hides trapped by power and light cables. It represents a symbol for the political and economic systems restricting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part heavenly staircase, this part of the installation, called Goavve-, points to the Sámi word for an extreme weather phenomenon, whereby thick layers of ice form as fluctuating temperatures melt and solidify again the snow, encasing the reindeers' main cold-season sustenance, moss. Goavvi is a consequence of global heating, which is happening up to four times faster in the Arctic than globally.

Previously, I visited Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a icy season and went with Sámi pastoralists on their snowmobiles in freezing temperatures as they hauled carts of food pellets on to the exposed frozen landscape to provide manually. These animals gathered round us, pawing the frozen ground in vain for lichen-covered pieces. This costly and demanding procedure is having a drastic impact on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the other option is starvation. When such conditions become routine, reindeer are dying—a number from hunger, others submerging after falling into streams through unstable frozen surfaces. On one level, the installation is a tribute to them. "Through the stacking of components, in a way I'm transporting the condition to London," says Sara.

Diverging Worldviews

This artwork also emphasizes the stark contrast between the western interpretation of energy as a resource to be harnessed for profit and existence and the Sámi philosophy of life force as an innate power in creatures, humans, and nature. This venue's legacy as a industrial facility is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi view as eco-imperialism by regional governments. In their efforts to be standard bearers for clean sources, these states have disagreed with the Sámi over the development of windfarms, hydroelectric dams, and mines on their ancestral land; the Sámi argue their human rights, livelihoods, and way of life are threatened. "It's hard being such a small minority to protect your rights when the arguments are grounded in global sustainability," Sara observes. "Extractivism has appropriated the rhetoric of environmentalism, but still it's just aiming to find better ways to maintain habits of expenditure."

Individual Struggles

Sara and her family have themselves disagreed with the national administration over its ever-stricter regulations on reindeer management. Previously, Sara's brother initiated a series of ultimately unsuccessful lawsuits over the forced culling of his animals, supposedly to stop vegetation depletion. In support, Sara produced a extended collection of creations titled Pile O'Sápmi featuring a colossal curtain of four hundred animal bones, which was shown at the 2017's event Documenta 14 and later purchased by the national institution, where it hangs in the entryway.

The Role of Art in Advocacy

For many Sámi, visual expression is the sole sphere in which they can be understood by the global community. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|