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Visitors to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unexpected experiences in its expansive Turbine Hall. They've relaxed under an simulated sun, glided down spiral slides, and witnessed automated jellyfish hovering through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be engaging themselves in the complex nose chambers of a reindeer. The newest artistic project for this huge space—developed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes patrons into a maze-like structure based on the expanded interior of a reindeer's nose cavities. Upon entering, they can stroll around or unwind on reindeer hides, tuning in on earphones to community leaders imparting tales and insights.

Why the Nose?

Why choose the nasal structure? It may appear whimsical, but the artwork honors a obscure scientific wonder: researchers have discovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the ambient air it takes in by 80 degrees celsius, allowing the animal to endure in extreme Arctic conditions. Scaling the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara says, "produces a perception of insignificance that you as a individual are not in control over nature." Sara is a ex- reporter, children's author, and rights advocate, who is from a reindeer-herding family in northern Norway. "Maybe that fosters the possibility to alter your perspective or evoke some modesty," she continues.

A Tribute to Traditional Ways

The winding structure is among various features in Sara's immersive exhibition celebrating the traditions, knowledge, and philosophy of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi number approximately 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an region they call Sápmi). They have endured persecution, forced assimilation, and repression of their tongue by all four nations. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the center of the Sámi mythology and creation story, the installation also spotlights the group's struggles associated with the environmental emergency, land dispossession, and colonialism.

Symbolism in Components

On the extended entry slope, there's a looming, 26-metre formation of skins trapped by electrical wires. It serves as a metaphor for the governance and financial structures constraining the Sámi. Part pylon, part spiritual ascent, this section of the artwork, named Goavve-, refers to the Sámi word for an extreme weather phenomenon, in which dense layers of ice form as changing conditions melt and refreeze the snow, trapping the reindeers' main winter nourishment, moss. Goavvi is a result of planetary warming, which is occurring up to four times faster in the Arctic than globally.

Three years ago, I met with Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a severe cold period and joined Sámi reindeer keepers on their snowmobiles in chilly conditions as they hauled trailers of animal nutrition on to the barren tundra to provide through labor. The herd gathered round us, digging the slippery ground in vain for mossy pieces. This expensive and labour-intensive process is having a drastic influence on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the choice is death. As goavvi winters become commonplace, reindeer are dying—a number from lack of food, others submerging after sinking in lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. In a sense, the work is a monument to them. "By overlapping of components, in a way I'm bringing the condition to London," says Sara.

Diverging Worldviews

The installation also emphasizes the stark divergence between the modern understanding of electricity as a commodity to be harnessed for economic benefit and survival and the Sámi worldview of life force as an natural life force in animals, humans, and land. This venue's past as a industrial facility is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi consider eco-imperialism by Scandinavian states. In their efforts to be standard bearers for clean sources, Scandinavian countries have locked horns with the Sámi over the development of wind energy projects, hydroelectric dams, and digging operations on their ancestral land; the Sámi argue their fundamental freedoms, livelihoods, and way of life are endangered. "It's hard being such a tiny group to protect your rights when the justifications are based on environmental protection," Sara observes. "Extractivism has appropriated the rhetoric of sustainability, but still it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to maintain practices of expenditure."

Personal Challenges

Sara and her kin have themselves disagreed with the state authorities over its ever-stricter regulations on herding. In 2016, Sara's brother embarked on a set of unsuccessful legal cases over the mandatory slaughter of his livestock, apparently to stop excessive feeding. In support, Sara created a four-year collection of pieces named Pile O'Sápmi including a colossal curtain of four hundred reindeer skulls, which was exhibited at the 2017's art exhibition Documenta 14 and later acquired by the national institution, where it is displayed in the entryway.

Creative Expression as Advocacy

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