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Attendees to Tate Modern are accustomed to unexpected encounters in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have basked under an man-made sun, glided down spiral slides, and seen robotic jellyfish hovering through the air. Yet this marks the initial time they will be engaging themselves in the intricate nose chambers of a reindeer. The current artist commission for this huge space—designed by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—encourages visitors into a maze-like construction based on the enlarged interior of a reindeer's nose passages. Upon entering, they can stroll around or chill out on skins, tuning in on earphones to tribal seniors sharing narratives and insights.

Why the Nose?

Why choose the nasal structure? It could seem quirky, but the installation honors a rarely recognized scientific wonder: scientists have uncovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the incoming air it takes in by 80 degrees celsius, enabling the creature to thrive in inhospitable Arctic climates. Enlarging the nose to bigger than a person, Sara says, "creates a sense of insignificance that you as a person are not in control over nature." The artist is a ex- journalist, writer for kids, and land defender, who is from a pastoral family in northern Norway. "Possibly that fosters the possibility to alter your outlook or spark some humility," she states.

A Celebration to Traditional Ways

The winding structure is one of several features in Sara's absorbing art project honoring the culture, understanding, and philosophy of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Partially migratory, the Sámi count about 100,000 people spread across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an area they call Sápmi). They have faced oppression, forced assimilation, and suppression of their tongue by all four countries. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi belief system and founding narrative, the work also highlights the people's issues associated with the environmental emergency, loss of territory, and external control.

Symbolism in Components

Along the lengthy access slope, there's a soaring, 26-metre sculpture of reindeer hides ensnared by electrical wires. It can be read as a metaphor for the governance and financial structures restricting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part celestial ladder, this part of the artwork, titled Goavve-, points to the Sámi name for an extreme weather phenomenon, in which thick layers of ice develop as fluctuating temperatures thaw and solidify again the snow, encasing the reindeers' key cold-season food, lichen. Goavvi is a consequence of global heating, which is happening up to much more rapidly in the Arctic than in other regions.

Previously, I traveled to see Sara in a remote town during a severe cold period and went with Sámi herders on their snowmobiles in freezing temperatures as they carried containers of animal nutrition on to the wind-scoured Arctic plains to dispense manually. The herd surrounded round us, scratching the frozen ground in futility for lichen-covered bits. This costly and laborious method is having a drastic influence on herding practices—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the choice is death. As these icy periods become frequent, reindeer are perishing—a number from hunger, others suffocating after sinking in water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. To some extent, the installation is a monument to them. "Through the stacking of components, in a way I'm introducing the condition to London," says Sara.

Opposing Worldviews

The installation also highlights the sharp contrast between the modern interpretation of energy as a asset to be harnessed for profit and survival and the Sámi outlook of vitality as an inherent essence in animals, humans, and the environment. This venue's past as a industrial facility is connected to this, as is what the Sámi view as eco-imperialism by Nordic countries. As they strive to be leaders for clean sources, Scandinavian countries have clashed with the Sámi over the development of wind energy projects, water power facilities, and extraction sites on their native soil; the Sámi argue their fundamental freedoms, livelihoods, and way of life are at risk. "It's very difficult being such a small minority to defend yourself when the reasons are grounded in global sustainability," Sara notes. "Mining practices has adopted the rhetoric of sustainability, but yet it's just striving to find alternative ways to persist in practices of use."

Individual Struggles

Sara and her family have themselves disagreed with the national administration over its tightening rules on herding. Previously, Sara's sibling embarked on a series of finally failed lawsuits over the mandatory slaughter of his animals, apparently to stop vegetation depletion. In support, Sara created a multi-year collection of creations titled Pile O'Sápmi featuring a massive curtain of numerous cranial remains, which was exhibited at the the show Documenta 14 and later purchased by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the entrance.

The Role of Art in Awareness

Among the community, visual expression appears the sole realm in which they can be understood by people of other nations. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|