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Guests to Tate Modern are accustomed to unusual encounters in its vast Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an man-made sun, descended down amusement rides, and seen robotic sea creatures floating through the air. However this marks the initial time they will be engaging themselves in the detailed nasal chambers of a reindeer. The latest creative installation for this huge space—designed by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites visitors into a maze-like construction inspired by the expanded inside of a reindeer's nose airways. Upon entering, they can meander around or unwind on reindeer hides, listening on earphones to tribal seniors sharing narratives and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

What's the focus on the nose? It might seem quirky, but the artwork pays tribute to a rarely recognized biological feat: experts have found that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the surrounding air it breathes in by 80°C, allowing the animal to endure in harsh Arctic conditions. Expanding the nose to bigger than a person, Sara explains, "creates a perception of smallness that you as a human being are not dominant over nature." The artist is a ex- writer, young adult author, and rights advocate, who comes from a herding family in the far north of Norway. "Maybe that fosters the potential to alter your perspective or evoke some humility," she continues.

A Tribute to Sámi Culture

The labyrinthine design is part of a elements in Sara's immersive art project honoring the heritage, knowledge, and philosophy of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Partially migratory, the Sámi total about 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, Finland, Sweden, and the Kola region (an territory they call Sápmi). They have faced oppression, forced assimilation, and suppression of their dialect by all four countries. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi belief system and founding narrative, the work also spotlights the people's challenges associated with the environmental emergency, property rights, and colonialism.

Metaphor in Components

At the extended access slope, there's a towering, 26-meter formation of pelts entangled by utility lines. It represents a analogy for the governance and financial structures limiting the Sámi. Part pylon, part heavenly staircase, this part of the exhibit, called Goavve-, refers to the Sámi name for an harsh environmental condition, wherein dense coatings of ice appear as fluctuating conditions melt and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' key winter nourishment, moss. This phenomenon is a result of planetary warming, which is taking place up to four times faster in the Polar region than in other regions.

Three years ago, I visited Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a severe cold period and joined Sámi pastoralists on their snowmobiles in biting cold as they carried containers of food pellets on to the wind-scoured tundra to provide manually. The reindeer gathered round us, digging the slippery ground in vain attempts for lichen-covered morsels. This expensive and demanding procedure is having a drastic effect on herding practices—and on the animals' natural survival. Yet the other option is malnutrition. As these icy periods become commonplace, reindeer are dying—a number from lack of food, others suffocating after falling into lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. To some extent, the installation is a tribute to them. "Through the stacking of components, in a way I'm bringing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Diverging Worldviews

The sculpture also underscores the clear difference between the modern understanding of electricity as a asset to be exploited for profit and livelihood and the Sámi philosophy of life force as an natural power in animals, people, and land. Tate Modern's history as a coal and oil power station is linked with this, as is what the Sámi view as environmental exploitation by regional governments. As they strive to be standard bearers for renewable energy, Scandinavian countries have disagreed with the Sámi over the building of wind energy projects, hydroelectric dams, and mines on their traditional territory; the Sámi argue their legal protections, incomes, and way of life are threatened. "It's challenging being such a tiny group to stand your ground when the reasons are grounded in saving the world," Sara comments. "Extractivism has adopted the language of sustainability, but still it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to persist in patterns of expenditure."

Family Struggles

She and her kin have personally disagreed with the Norwegian government over its tightening rules on animal husbandry. A few years ago, Sara's sibling undertook a set of finally failed legal cases over the required reduction of his animals, ostensibly to stop overgrazing. In support, Sara developed a four-year collection of artworks called Pile O'Sápmi including a colossal curtain of four hundred reindeer skulls, which was shown at the the event Documenta 14 and later acquired by the national institution, where it is displayed in the entrance.

Creative Expression as Activism

For many Sámi, art appears the only sphere in which they can be heard by the global community. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|