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Visitors to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unexpected displays in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have relaxed under an simulated sun, slid down helter skelters, and observed AI-powered jellyfish drifting through the air. However this marks the inaugural time they will be venturing themselves in the intricate nose chambers of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this cavernous space—developed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages gallerygoers into a labyrinthine structure inspired by the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nose cavities. Upon entering, they can meander around or chill out on reindeer hides, tuning in on earphones to Sámi elders sharing tales and insights.

Why the Nose?

What's the focus on the nose? It may sound whimsical, but the installation pays tribute to a rarely recognized biological feat: scientists have discovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can heat the surrounding air it breathes in by 80°C, enabling the creature to thrive in extreme Arctic conditions. Scaling the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara says, "creates a feeling of inferiority that you as a person are not dominant over nature." Sara is a former writer, young adult author, and land defender, who hails from a herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Possibly that creates the potential to shift your perspective or trigger some humility," she continues.

A Celebration to Traditional Ways

The labyrinthine structure is one of several elements in Sara's immersive exhibition honoring the culture, knowledge, and philosophy of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi number roughly 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Kola region (an territory they call Sápmi). They've experienced discrimination, forced assimilation, and repression of their dialect by all four states. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an animal at the center of the Sámi cosmology and creation story, the work also spotlights the people's struggles relating to the climate crisis, property rights, and external control.

Metaphor in Materials

Along the extended entrance ramp, there's a looming, 26-meter sculpture of skins ensnared by utility lines. It serves as a symbol for the political and economic systems limiting the Sámi. Part pylon, part heavenly staircase, this component of the installation, titled Goavve-, points to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, wherein dense layers of ice appear as changing conditions liquefy and refreeze the snow, encasing the reindeers' primary winter nourishment, lichen. Goavvi is a outcome of global heating, which is occurring up to much more rapidly in the Arctic than in other regions.

Previously, I visited Sara in the Norwegian far north during a severe cold period and went with Sámi pastoralists on their snowmobiles in biting cold as they hauled containers of food pellets on to the wind-scoured Arctic plains to dispense through labor. The reindeer crowded round us, scratching the slippery ground in futility for mossy morsels. This expensive and laborious process is having a drastic influence on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the other option is death. As these icy periods become routine, reindeer are succumbing—some from starvation, others drowning after sinking in water bodies through prematurely melting ice. On one level, the art is a memorial to them. "By overlapping of materials, in a way I'm introducing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Opposing Worldviews

The sculpture also underscores the sharp divergence between the western understanding of energy as a asset to be exploited for profit and livelihood and the Sámi worldview of life force as an innate power in creatures, humans, and nature. This venue's history as a coal and oil power station is linked with this, as is what the Sámi see as environmental exploitation by Nordic countries. As they strive to be exemplars for renewable energy, Nordic nations have disagreed with the Sámi over the development of wind energy projects, hydroelectric dams, and mines on their native soil; the Sámi argue their fundamental freedoms, incomes, and way of life are threatened. "It's challenging being such a small minority to protect your rights when the reasons are rooted in global sustainability," Sara notes. "Mining practices has adopted the discourse of environmentalism, but nonetheless it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to continue practices of use."

Family Challenges

The artist and her family have themselves disagreed with the Norwegian government over its tightening regulations on reindeer management. Previously, Sara's sibling embarked on a set of finally failed court actions over the required reduction of his animals, supposedly to stop vegetation depletion. To back him, Sara created a extended series of pieces called Pile O'Sápmi comprising a huge curtain of 400 animal bones, which was displayed at the 2017 event Documenta 14 and later purchased by the National Museum of Oslo, where it resides in the entrance.

Art as Advocacy

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