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Attendees to the renowned gallery are familiar to surprising displays in its spacious Turbine Hall. They've sunbathed under an artificial sun, slid down helter skelters, and seen automated sea creatures floating through the air. But this marks the initial time they will be immersing themselves in the detailed nasal passages of a reindeer. The latest creative installation for this cavernous space—created by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites gallerygoers into a winding construction modeled after the scaled-up inside of a reindeer's nasal passages. Upon entering, they can wander around or unwind on pelts, tuning in on headphones to Sámi elders telling stories and wisdom.

Why the Nose?

Why the nose? It could appear quirky, but the exhibit pays tribute to a little-known scientific wonder: experts have discovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can heat the surrounding air it inhales by eighty degrees, helping the animal to thrive in extreme Arctic conditions. Enlarging the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara says, "produces a sense of smallness that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." Sara is a former writer, writer for kids, and land defender, who comes from a reindeer-herding family in northern Norway. "Possibly that fosters the possibility to change your perspective or trigger some humility," she states.

A Celebration to Traditional Ways

The labyrinthine structure is part of a features in Sara's immersive commission showcasing the heritage, understanding, and philosophy of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Partially migratory, the Sámi total about 100,000 people spread across northern Norway, Finland, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an area they call Sápmi). They've faced oppression, forced assimilation, and suppression of their language by all four states. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the center of the Sámi belief system and founding narrative, the work also draws attention to the people's struggles relating to the climate crisis, property rights, and colonialism.

Metaphor in Materials

On the extended entrance incline, there's a towering, eighty-five-foot formation of skins trapped by power and light cables. It can be read as a symbol for the governance and financial structures restricting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part heavenly staircase, this component of the artwork, called Goavve-, points to the Sámi term for an harsh environmental condition, wherein dense coatings of ice appear as varying temperatures melt and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' main winter food, moss. The condition is a result of climate change, which is happening up to at an accelerated rate in the Arctic than globally.

Three years ago, I traveled to see Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a goavvi winter and joined Sámi reindeer keepers on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they carried carts of supplementary feed on to the exposed Arctic plains to provide manually. The herd gathered round us, digging the frozen ground in vain for mossy morsels. This resource-intensive and demanding process is having a severe impact on animal rearing—and on the animals' independence. But the choice is malnutrition. As these icy periods become commonplace, reindeer are succumbing—a number from hunger, others submerging after falling into lakes and rivers through prematurely melting ice. To some extent, the installation is a memorial to them. "By overlapping of elements, in a way I'm introducing the condition to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Perspectives

This artwork also emphasizes the stark contrast between the western view of electricity as a asset to be exploited for profit and existence and the Sámi philosophy of life force as an natural essence in creatures, humans, and nature. The gallery's history as a fossil fuel plant is connected to this, as is what the Sámi consider green colonialism by Nordic countries. In their efforts to be exemplars for clean sources, these states have clashed with the Sámi over the construction of turbine fields, hydroelectric dams, and extraction sites on their traditional territory; the Sámi argue their legal protections, ways of life, and traditions are threatened. "It's hard being such a limited population to stand your ground when the reasons are based on global sustainability," Sara notes. "Resource exploitation has appropriated the language of ecology, but yet it's just striving to find more suitable ways to maintain patterns of consumption."

Family Conflicts

She and her kin have themselves disagreed with the Norwegian government over its tightening policies on reindeer management. A few years ago, Sara's brother undertook a sequence of finally failed lawsuits over the forced culling of his herd, apparently to stop vegetation depletion. To back him, Sara developed a four-year collection of pieces titled Pile O'Sápmi featuring a colossal curtain of numerous reindeer skulls, which was displayed at the the event Documenta 14 and later purchased by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the entryway.

The Role of Art in Awareness

For many Sámi, visual expression is the sole realm in which they can be listened to by people of other nations. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|