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Guests to Tate Modern are used to unexpected displays in its spacious Turbine Hall. They've relaxed under an man-made sun, descended down spiral slides, and observed robotic jellyfish hovering through the air. But this marks the inaugural time they will be engaging themselves in the complex nasal chambers of a reindeer. The current artist commission for this immense space—created by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—invites gallerygoers into a labyrinthine construction inspired by the scaled-up inside of a reindeer's nose passages. Upon entering, they can meander around or chill out on pelts, tuning in on earphones to Sámi elders sharing tales and wisdom.

The Significance of the Nose

Why choose the nasal structure? It might appear quirky, but the installation honors a rarely recognized natural marvel: experts have uncovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the surrounding air it inhales by eighty degrees, enabling the creature to endure in inhospitable Arctic climates. Enlarging the nose to bigger than a person, Sara explains, "creates a sense of smallness that you as a individual are not in control over nature." She is a ex- reporter, children's author, and land defender, who hails from a pastoral family in the far north of Norway. "Maybe that creates the possibility to shift your viewpoint or spark some humbleness," she states.

A Tribute to Indigenous Heritage

The labyrinthine installation is one of several elements in Sara's absorbing commission honoring the culture, science, and philosophy of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Partially migratory, the Sámi count approximately 100,000 people spread across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an region they call Sápmi). They've faced oppression, integration policies, and eradication of their tongue by all four nations. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the core of the Sámi belief system and origin tale, the art also draws attention to the group's struggles relating to the environmental emergency, loss of territory, and external control.

Meaning in Components

Along the long access slope, there's a soaring, 26-metre formation of skins ensnared by electrical wires. It represents a analogy for the political and economic systems restricting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part heavenly staircase, this section of the artwork, titled Goavve-, relates to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, whereby dense layers of ice appear as fluctuating conditions thaw and ice over the snow, encasing the reindeers' primary winter nourishment, fungus. This phenomenon is a result of global heating, which is happening up to much more rapidly in the Polar region than globally.

Three years ago, I traveled to see Sara in a remote town during a goavvi winter and accompanied Sámi reindeer keepers on their snowmobiles in freezing temperatures as they carried carts of animal nutrition on to the exposed tundra to dispense by hand. These animals gathered round us, pawing the icy ground in futility for mossy bits. This costly and laborious procedure is having a significant effect on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. Yet the choice is death. As these icy periods become frequent, reindeer are succumbing—a number from starvation, others submerging after plunging into water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. In a sense, the installation is a monument to them. "By overlapping of elements, in a way I'm transporting the condition to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Belief Systems

The installation also emphasizes the sharp contrast between the western view of energy as a resource to be harnessed for profit and livelihood and the Sámi outlook of life force as an inherent life force in creatures, individuals, and the environment. This venue's history as a fossil fuel plant is linked with this, as is what the Sámi consider green colonialism by regional governments. While attempting to be standard bearers for clean sources, Nordic nations have clashed with the Sámi over the construction of turbine fields, hydroelectric dams, and extraction sites on their ancestral land; the Sámi argue their legal protections, incomes, and traditions are endangered. "It's very difficult being such a small minority to stand your ground when the arguments are based on saving the world," Sara notes. "Mining practices has adopted the discourse of environmentalism, but still it's just striving to find more suitable ways to persist in habits of use."

Individual Conflicts

She and her family have themselves disagreed with the Norwegian government over its ever-stricter regulations on herding. A few years ago, Sara's sibling embarked on a series of finally failed court actions over the forced culling of his animals, ostensibly to stop vegetation depletion. As a show of solidarity, Sara created a extended collection of creations named Pile O'Sápmi including a massive curtain of 400 cranial remains, which was exhibited at the 2017 show Documenta 14 and later purchased by the public gallery, where it hangs in the entryway.

The Role of Art in Awareness

For numerous Indigenous people, visual expression seems the only realm in which they can be listened to by outsiders. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|