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Visitors to the renowned gallery are familiar to unusual displays in its vast Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an simulated sun, descended down spiral slides, and witnessed robotic jellyfish floating through the air. However this marks the first time they will be venturing themselves in the detailed nasal cavities of a reindeer. The newest artistic project for this huge space—developed by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites patrons into a winding design based on the expanded interior of a reindeer's nose cavities. Upon entering, they can wander around or unwind on pelts, listening on headphones to tribal seniors sharing tales and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

Why the nose? It might seem quirky, but the exhibit honors a rarely recognized biological feat: researchers have uncovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can heat the ambient air it breathes in by eighty degrees, allowing the animal to thrive in extreme Arctic conditions. Scaling the nose to larger than human size, Sara says, "generates a feeling of insignificance that you as a person are not superior over nature." Sara is a former reporter, writer for kids, and land defender, who is from a herding family in the far north of Norway. "Maybe that fosters the chance to alter your viewpoint or spark some modesty," she adds.

A Celebration to Indigenous Heritage

The winding structure is among various features in Sara's absorbing exhibition showcasing the traditions, science, and beliefs of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi total roughly 100,000 people ranged across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an region they call Sápmi). They've experienced persecution, cultural suppression, and suppression of their language by all four countries. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an animal at the core of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the art also highlights the people's challenges relating to the climate crisis, loss of territory, and colonialism.

Meaning in Components

Along the lengthy entry slope, there's a looming, 26-metre structure of reindeer hides ensnared by power and light cables. It represents a symbol for the governance and financial structures constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part heavenly staircase, this section of the artwork, named Goavve-, relates to the Sámi word for an severe climatic event, wherein thick sheets of ice develop as fluctuating conditions melt and refreeze the snow, locking in the reindeers' key winter sustenance, fungus. This phenomenon is a result of climate change, which is taking place up to four times faster in the Far North than elsewhere.

Three years ago, I met with Sara in a remote town during a goavvi winter and went with Sámi reindeer keepers on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they transported carts of food pellets on to the barren Arctic plains to dispense through labor. The herd surrounded round us, scratching the frozen ground in vain attempts for lichen-covered bits. This costly and labour-intensive procedure is having a drastic impact on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. Yet the other option is death. As goavvi winters become routine, reindeer are dying—some from lack of food, others submerging after falling into lakes and rivers through thinning ice sheets. In a sense, the work is a memorial to them. "With the layering of elements, in a way I'm transporting the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Belief Systems

The installation also emphasizes the sharp contrast between the industrial view of energy as a resource to be harnessed for gain and livelihood and the Sámi outlook of vitality as an inherent life force in creatures, people, and nature. This venue's legacy as a fossil fuel plant is linked with this, as is what the Sámi see as eco-imperialism by Scandinavian states. As they strive to be exemplars for renewable energy, these states have disagreed with the Sámi over the building of wind energy projects, river barriers, and mines on their traditional territory; the Sámi contend their fundamental freedoms, livelihoods, and traditions are at risk. "It's challenging being such a small minority to protect your rights when the arguments are based on global sustainability," Sara notes. "Extractivism has co-opted the language of ecology, but yet it's just aiming to find more suitable ways to continue practices of expenditure."

Individual Conflicts

The artist and her relatives have themselves conflicted with the national administration over its tightening policies on animal husbandry. In 2016, Sara's sibling initiated a series of finally failed legal cases over the forced culling of his animals, apparently to stop excessive feeding. As a show of solidarity, Sara created a extended collection of creations called Pile O'Sápmi featuring a massive screen of 400 cranial remains, which was exhibited at the the art exhibition Documenta 14 and later purchased by the National Museum of Oslo, where it hangs in the lobby.

The Role of Art in Activism

For many Sámi, visual expression is the only sphere in which they can be understood by people of other nations. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|