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Visitors to Tate Modern are used to unusual encounters in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an artificial sun, slid down amusement rides, and witnessed robotic sea creatures hovering through the air. However this marks the initial time they will be engaging themselves in the intricate nasal chambers of a reindeer. The current artistic project for this cavernous space—developed by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes gallerygoers into a maze-like structure based on the enlarged interior of a reindeer's nasal airways. Upon entering, they can meander around or unwind on pelts, tuning in on headphones to community leaders imparting stories and insights.

The Significance of the Nose

Why the nose? It may appear whimsical, but the artwork honors a little-known scientific wonder: experts have uncovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the incoming air it inhales by 80 degrees celsius, helping the creature to thrive in extreme Arctic climates. Scaling the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara notes, "creates a sense of inferiority that you as a human being are not in control over nature." Sara is a ex- writer, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who is from a reindeer-herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Possibly that creates the chance to alter your outlook or spark some modesty," she continues.

A Celebration to Traditional Ways

The maze-like installation is among various features in Sara's absorbing commission showcasing the culture, understanding, and worldview of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi number about 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an region they call Sápmi). They've faced oppression, integration policies, and suppression of their language by all four countries. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the installation also highlights the community's challenges relating to the global warming, loss of territory, and imperialism.

Metaphor in Elements

Along the lengthy access incline, there's a soaring, 26-metre formation of reindeer hides entangled by power and light cables. It can be read as a symbol for the societal frameworks limiting the Sámi. Part pylon, part heavenly staircase, this section of the artwork, named Goavve-, points to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, in which solid coatings of ice develop as fluctuating weather melt and ice over the snow, encasing the reindeers' key cold-season sustenance, lichen. Goavvi is a consequence of climate change, which is occurring up to at an accelerated rate in the Polar region than in other regions.

Three years ago, I visited Sara in a remote town during a icy season and joined Sámi herders on their motorized sleds in chilly conditions as they hauled carts of supplementary feed on to the exposed tundra to dispense through labor. The herd gathered round us, digging the icy ground in vain attempts for vegetative bits. This resource-intensive and labour-intensive procedure is having a significant impact on herding practices—and on the animals' independence. But the alternative is death. As these icy periods become commonplace, reindeer are perishing—a number from lack of food, others suffocating after falling into lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. On one level, the work is a memorial to them. "Through the stacking of elements, in a way I'm bringing the condition to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Perspectives

The installation also highlights the clear contrast between the modern interpretation of electricity as a asset to be exploited for gain and survival and the Sámi outlook of life force as an inherent essence in creatures, individuals, and the environment. Tate Modern's history as a fossil fuel plant is connected to this, as is what the Sámi consider environmental exploitation by Scandinavian states. As they strive to be exemplars for sustainable power, Nordic nations have clashed with the Sámi over the construction of windfarms, hydroelectric dams, and digging operations on their ancestral land; the Sámi argue their legal protections, ways of life, and way of life are endangered. "It's hard being such a small minority to stand your ground when the arguments are based on environmental protection," Sara observes. "Extractivism has adopted the rhetoric of environmentalism, but nonetheless it's just attempting to find alternative ways to maintain patterns of expenditure."

Personal Conflicts

Sara and her kin have personally conflicted with the Norwegian government over its increasingly stringent policies on herding. A few years ago, Sara's sibling embarked on a set of finally failed lawsuits over the required reduction of his animals, ostensibly to stop excessive feeding. In support, Sara developed a extended series of creations called Pile O'Sápmi including a massive drape of numerous cranial remains, which was shown at the 2017's art exhibition Documenta 14 and later purchased by the National Museum of Oslo, where it is displayed in the entrance.

The Role of Art in Awareness

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