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Attendees to Tate Modern are accustomed to unexpected encounters in its vast Turbine Hall. They've basked under an man-made sun, slid down amusement rides, and seen robotic jellyfish floating through the air. But this marks the initial time they will be immersing themselves in the complex nasal cavities of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this immense space—designed by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites patrons into a winding design modeled after the expanded interior of a reindeer's nose cavities. Once inside, they can wander around or chill out on skins, tuning in on earphones to Sámi elders sharing tales and insights.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why choose the nasal structure? It could sound whimsical, but the exhibit pays tribute to a little-known scientific wonder: scientists have found that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the ambient air it inhales by 80°C, helping the creature to thrive in inhospitable Arctic temperatures. Scaling the nose to larger than human size, Sara says, "creates a perception of inferiority that you as a individual are not in control over nature." Sara is a ex- reporter, young adult author, and environmental activist, who hails from a pastoral family in northern Norway. "Possibly that generates the chance to alter your outlook or trigger some humility," she adds.

An Homage to Sámi Culture

The labyrinthine design is one of several features in Sara's engaging exhibition celebrating the traditions, knowledge, and beliefs of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Partially migratory, the Sámi total about 100,000 people ranged across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an region they call Sápmi). They have faced oppression, cultural suppression, and repression of their tongue by all four states. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi cosmology and creation story, the work also draws attention to the group's issues connected to the environmental emergency, property rights, and colonialism.

Meaning in Elements

Along the lengthy access ramp, there's a soaring, 26-metre formation of skins trapped by power and light cables. It can be read as a symbol for the political and economic systems constraining the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part celestial ladder, this section of the artwork, named Goavve-, relates to the Sámi name for an extreme weather phenomenon, in which thick sheets of ice form as fluctuating weather thaw and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' main cold-season sustenance, moss. This phenomenon is a outcome of global heating, which is occurring up to much more rapidly in the Arctic than elsewhere.

A few years back, I visited Sara in a remote town during a goavvi winter and went with Sámi herders on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they transported containers of supplementary feed on to the wind-scoured tundra to provide manually. The reindeer crowded round us, scratching the icy ground in vain attempts for vegetative pieces. This resource-intensive and demanding procedure is having a significant effect on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' natural survival. Yet the other option is malnutrition. As goavvi winters become frequent, reindeer are dying—a number from starvation, others submerging after sinking in lakes and rivers through thinning ice sheets. To some extent, the installation is a memorial to them. "By overlapping of elements, in a way I'm transporting the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Diverging Worldviews

This artwork also highlights the stark difference between the modern view of electricity as a asset to be harnessed for profit and existence and the Sámi worldview of energy as an natural life force in creatures, humans, and land. This venue's legacy as a coal and oil power station is connected to this, as is what the Sámi view as eco-imperialism by Scandinavian states. As they strive to be standard bearers for renewable energy, Scandinavian countries have disagreed with the Sámi over the development of turbine fields, water power facilities, and extraction sites on their native soil; the Sámi argue their human rights, ways of life, and way of life are endangered. "It's challenging being such a tiny group to protect your rights when the arguments are grounded in environmental protection," Sara observes. "Resource exploitation has co-opted the language of ecology, but yet it's just striving to find alternative ways to continue patterns of use."

Personal Conflicts

Sara and her relatives have personally clashed with the state authorities over its increasingly stringent regulations on animal husbandry. Previously, Sara's sibling embarked on a series of finally failed court actions over the mandatory slaughter of his animals, apparently to stop excessive feeding. As a show of solidarity, Sara produced a extended collection of creations named Pile O'Sápmi comprising a massive screen of 400 animal bones, which was exhibited at the 2017 event Documenta 14 and later obtained by the national institution, where it is displayed in the entrance.

Art as Advocacy

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