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Attendees to the renowned gallery are familiar to surprising displays in its spacious Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an artificial sun, slid down amusement rides, and observed robotic sea creatures hovering through the air. However this marks the initial time they will be venturing themselves in the complex nose passages of a reindeer. The current creative installation for this huge space—created by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes patrons into a labyrinthine design based on the scaled-up interior of a reindeer's nasal passages. Upon entering, they can stroll around or unwind on reindeer hides, tuning in on headphones to Sámi elders telling tales and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

What's the focus on the nose? It may appear whimsical, but the exhibit pays tribute to a rarely recognized natural marvel: scientists have found 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, allowing the animal to thrive in harsh Arctic climates. Scaling the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara explains, "generates a perception of inferiority that you as a person are not dominant over nature." Sara is a ex- journalist, young adult author, and rights advocate, who hails from a reindeer-herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Perhaps that generates the chance to change your viewpoint or trigger some modesty," she states.

A Celebration to Traditional Ways

The labyrinthine structure is one of several components in Sara's engaging commission showcasing the culture, knowledge, and beliefs of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi count roughly 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an area they call Sápmi). They have endured oppression, forced assimilation, and repression of their language by all four states. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi mythology and founding narrative, the work also highlights the group's struggles connected to the climate crisis, loss of territory, and imperialism.

Symbolism in Elements

On the extended entry ramp, there's a looming, eighty-five-foot structure of reindeer hides entangled by utility lines. It serves as a metaphor for the governance and financial structures restricting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part celestial ladder, this section of the exhibit, named Goavve-, points to the Sámi name for an severe climatic event, whereby solid coatings of ice appear as varying temperatures thaw and solidify again the snow, encasing the reindeers' key winter nourishment, fungus. This phenomenon is a consequence of global heating, which is occurring up to at an accelerated rate in the Polar region than in other regions.

A few years back, I visited Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi reindeer keepers on their Arctic vehicles in biting cold as they transported containers of supplementary feed on to the wind-scoured tundra to provide through labor. These animals gathered round us, pawing the icy ground in vain attempts for lichen-covered bits. This resource-intensive and laborious procedure is having a significant influence on herding practices—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the other option is death. As goavvi winters become routine, reindeer are succumbing—a number from starvation, others suffocating after sinking in lakes and rivers through thinning ice sheets. To some extent, the work is a memorial to them. "Through the stacking of elements, in a way I'm bringing the condition to London," says Sara.

Diverging Worldviews

This artwork also highlights the clear divergence between the industrial understanding of electricity as a asset to be harnessed for profit and survival and the Sámi philosophy of energy as an inherent essence in creatures, people, and land. This venue's history as a coal and oil power station is connected to this, as is what the Sámi consider eco-imperialism by Nordic countries. In their efforts to be standard bearers for renewable energy, Nordic nations have locked horns with the Sámi over the building of turbine fields, river barriers, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi contend their human rights, incomes, and way of life are endangered. "It's challenging being such a small minority to defend yourself when the arguments are rooted in environmental protection," Sara comments. "Extractivism has co-opted the language of sustainability, but yet it's just aiming to find alternative ways to persist in practices of use."

Individual Conflicts

She and her relatives have personally conflicted with the state authorities over its tightening regulations on reindeer management. A few years ago, Sara's brother undertook a set of finally failed legal cases over the mandatory slaughter of his livestock, apparently to stop excessive feeding. To back him, Sara created a extended collection of creations named Pile O'Sápmi including a huge curtain of four hundred cranial remains, which was exhibited at the the art exhibition Documenta 14 and later obtained by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the lobby.

The Role of Art in Awareness

For many Sámi, creative work seems the sole domain in which they can be listened to by outsiders. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|