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Visitors to the renowned gallery are used to unexpected encounters in its vast Turbine Hall. They've sunbathed under an man-made sun, glided down spiral slides, and witnessed AI-powered sea creatures floating through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be venturing themselves in the intricate nasal passages of a reindeer. The latest creative installation for this cavernous space—created by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes patrons into a maze-like design modeled after the enlarged interior of a reindeer's nose passages. Upon entering, they can stroll around or relax on pelts, listening on earphones to community leaders telling narratives and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

Why the nose? It may appear quirky, but the exhibit pays tribute to a obscure biological feat: scientists have discovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the ambient air it breathes in by 80°C, allowing the animal to thrive in harsh Arctic conditions. Enlarging the nose to bigger than a person, Sara notes, "produces a feeling of smallness that you as a human being are not in control over nature." She is a ex- reporter, children's author, and rights advocate, who comes from a pastoral family in the far north of Norway. "Possibly that creates the potential to alter your viewpoint or trigger some humbleness," she states.

A Celebration to Sámi Culture

The labyrinthine installation is one of several components in Sara's engaging commission celebrating the culture, science, and philosophy of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Partially migratory, the Sámi count about 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, Finland, Sweden, and the Kola region (an region they call Sápmi). They've endured persecution, cultural suppression, and eradication of their language by all four countries. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the core of the Sámi mythology and origin tale, the installation also draws attention to the community's issues connected to the environmental emergency, loss of territory, and imperialism.

Symbolism in Elements

Along the extended entry slope, there's a soaring, eighty-five-foot structure of skins ensnared by power and light cables. It serves as a metaphor for the political and economic systems restricting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part celestial ladder, this part of the installation, titled Goavve-, points to the Sámi name for an severe climatic event, whereby dense layers of ice form as varying weather thaw and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' key winter sustenance, lichen. The condition is a outcome of global heating, which is occurring up to four times faster in the Arctic than globally.

A few years back, I met with Sara in the Norwegian far north during a icy season and went with Sámi pastoralists on their motorized sleds in biting cold as they transported carts of food pellets on to the barren Arctic plains to provide by hand. The herd surrounded round us, digging the slippery ground in vain for vegetative morsels. This costly and demanding method is having a significant influence on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' natural survival. Yet the alternative is death. As these icy periods become commonplace, reindeer are perishing—some from starvation, others submerging after falling into water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. To some extent, the art is a memorial to them. "By overlapping of elements, in a way I'm introducing the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

The installation also highlights the clear divergence between the industrial view of energy as a resource to be exploited for gain and livelihood and the Sámi worldview of vitality as an inherent power in animals, humans, and the environment. The gallery's history 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 renewable energy, these states have disagreed with the Sámi over the building of windfarms, hydroelectric dams, and extraction sites on their native soil; the Sámi contend their human rights, incomes, and traditions are endangered. "It's very difficult being such a small minority to protect your rights when the reasons are rooted in saving the world," Sara observes. "Mining practices has appropriated the language of sustainability, but yet it's just aiming to find more suitable ways to maintain practices of consumption."

Individual Conflicts

She and her family have themselves disagreed with the state authorities over its tightening regulations on animal husbandry. Previously, Sara's sibling initiated a set of ultimately unsuccessful lawsuits over the mandatory slaughter of his livestock, apparently to stop excessive feeding. In support, Sara developed a four-year series of pieces named Pile O'Sápmi featuring a colossal drape of 400 animal bones, which was displayed at the the event Documenta 14 and later purchased by the National Museum of Oslo, where it resides in the entryway.

Creative Expression as Activism

For numerous Indigenous people, creative work seems the exclusive domain in which they can be heard by people of other nations. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|