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Visitors to the renowned gallery are used to unusual displays in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an simulated sun, glided down amusement rides, and witnessed automated jellyfish hovering through the air. But this marks the inaugural time they will be venturing themselves in the detailed nasal chambers of a reindeer. The current artistic project for this huge space—created by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites patrons into a maze-like structure inspired by the enlarged interior of a reindeer's nose passages. Inside, they can wander around or chill out on reindeer hides, listening on headphones to community leaders imparting tales and insights.

The Significance of the Nose

What's the focus on the nose? It could appear quirky, but the artwork celebrates a obscure scientific wonder: scientists have discovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the incoming air it breathes in by 80°C, helping the animal to survive in extreme Arctic conditions. Scaling the nose to bigger than a person, Sara says, "creates a feeling of smallness that you as a human being are not in control over nature." She is a ex- journalist, children's author, and rights advocate, who is from a herding family in northern Norway. "Perhaps that generates the chance to change your outlook or trigger some humility," she adds.

A Tribute to Indigenous Heritage

The winding structure is part of a features in Sara's immersive commission showcasing the heritage, knowledge, and philosophy of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi count roughly 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an region they call Sápmi). They have experienced discrimination, forced assimilation, and eradication of their language by all four countries. By focusing on the reindeer, an animal at the center of the Sámi mythology and creation story, the installation also draws attention to the people's challenges connected to the global warming, loss of territory, and external control.

Meaning in Components

On the extended access slope, there's a looming, 26-meter sculpture of pelts entangled by power and light cables. It can be read as a symbol for the governance and financial structures restricting the Sámi. Part pylon, part celestial ladder, this section of the installation, titled Goavve-, relates to the Sámi name for an extreme weather phenomenon, wherein thick sheets of ice develop as changing weather liquefy and ice over the snow, locking in the reindeers' main cold-season sustenance, moss. The condition is a outcome of climate change, which is occurring up to much more rapidly in the Arctic than elsewhere.

A few years back, I met with Sara in a remote town during a severe cold period and joined Sámi herders on their snowmobiles in biting cold as they transported trailers of food pellets on to the barren tundra to distribute by hand. The reindeer crowded round us, scratching the icy ground in futility for lichen-covered bits. This expensive and laborious process is having a significant influence on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the alternative is death. As these icy periods become routine, reindeer are dying—a number from lack of food, others suffocating after sinking in streams through thinning ice sheets. In a sense, the installation is a monument to them. "With the layering of elements, in a way I'm bringing the condition to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

The installation also highlights the sharp contrast between the western interpretation of electricity as a commodity to be harnessed for profit and survival and the Sámi outlook of vitality as an inherent essence in creatures, people, and nature. The gallery's past as a fossil fuel plant is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi see as green colonialism by Scandinavian states. As they strive to be standard bearers for renewable energy, Nordic nations have clashed with the Sámi over the development of turbine fields, hydroelectric dams, and mines on their native soil; the Sámi contend their human rights, ways of life, and traditions are at risk. "It's very difficult being such a small minority to defend yourself when the arguments are grounded in saving the world," Sara comments. "Extractivism has adopted the rhetoric of ecology, but nonetheless it's just attempting to find alternative ways to continue habits of consumption."

Personal Challenges

She and her family have themselves conflicted with the Norwegian government over its ever-stricter regulations on reindeer management. Previously, Sara's sibling embarked on a set of unsuccessful lawsuits over the required reduction of his animals, apparently to stop excessive feeding. In support, Sara created a multi-year set of artworks called Pile O'Sápmi comprising a huge drape of four hundred reindeer skulls, which was shown at the the event Documenta 14 and later acquired by the National Museum of Oslo, where it resides in the lobby.

The Role of Art in Activism

For many Sámi, art seems the sole realm in which they can be understood by outsiders. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|