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Guests to the renowned gallery are accustomed to surprising experiences in its vast Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an man-made sun, slid down helter skelters, and seen robotic sea creatures floating through the air. However this marks the first time they will be engaging themselves in the detailed nasal passages of a reindeer. The latest creative installation for this cavernous space—created by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—encourages patrons into a winding structure based on the expanded inside of a reindeer's nasal cavities. Upon entering, they can wander around or unwind on reindeer hides, tuning in on headphones to Sámi elders imparting narratives and wisdom.

Why the Nose?

Why choose the nasal structure? It might seem playful, but the exhibit pays tribute to a little-known natural marvel: researchers have discovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the incoming air it breathes in by 80°C, enabling the animal to survive in extreme Arctic temperatures. Expanding the nose to bigger than a person, Sara says, "creates a sense of inferiority that you as a person are not in control over nature." She is a ex- writer, writer for kids, and land defender, who hails from a reindeer-herding family in the far north of Norway. "Maybe that generates the possibility to change your outlook or spark some humbleness," she continues.

An Homage to Indigenous Heritage

The maze-like installation is part of a components in Sara's absorbing exhibition celebrating the culture, science, and philosophy of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Partially migratory, the Sámi total approximately 100,000 people spread across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, Sweden, and the Russian Arctic (an region they call Sápmi). They have experienced discrimination, forced assimilation, and eradication of their language by all four nations. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi cosmology and founding narrative, the art also draws attention to the people's struggles connected to the climate crisis, land dispossession, and colonialism.

Symbolism in Materials

On the lengthy entrance slope, there's a soaring, 26-metre structure of pelts entangled by utility lines. It serves as a metaphor for the societal frameworks limiting the Sámi. Part pylon, part heavenly staircase, this component of the installation, titled Goavve-, refers to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, in which dense layers of ice appear as varying temperatures liquefy and refreeze the snow, locking in the reindeers' key cold-season nourishment, moss. The condition is a outcome of planetary warming, which is occurring up to much more rapidly in the Polar region than elsewhere.

A few years back, I visited Sara in a remote town during a icy season and joined Sámi pastoralists on their snowmobiles in biting cold as they carried carts of supplementary feed on to the wind-scoured frozen landscape to dispense by hand. The herd surrounded round us, pawing the slippery ground in futility for lichen-covered pieces. This costly and demanding process is having a drastic impact on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. But the other option is death. When such conditions become routine, reindeer are succumbing—some from starvation, others submerging after falling into water bodies through prematurely melting ice. In a sense, the installation is a memorial to them. "Through the stacking of materials, in a way I'm transporting the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Opposing Worldviews

The installation also underscores the sharp difference between the western understanding of energy as a resource to be exploited for economic benefit and existence and the Sámi philosophy of vitality as an inherent essence in creatures, individuals, and nature. This venue's history as a coal and oil power station is linked with this, as is what the Sámi consider environmental exploitation by Scandinavian states. While attempting to be exemplars for clean sources, Scandinavian countries have disagreed with the Sámi over the development of wind energy projects, hydroelectric dams, and mines on their traditional territory; the Sámi assert their legal protections, ways of life, and traditions are at risk. "It's very difficult being such a small minority to defend yourself when the reasons are rooted in global sustainability," Sara notes. "Resource exploitation has co-opted the language of sustainability, but nonetheless it's just aiming to find alternative ways to maintain patterns of expenditure."

Individual Struggles

Sara and her kin have personally disagreed with the state authorities over its tightening rules on reindeer management. In 2016, Sara's sibling initiated a set of ultimately unsuccessful lawsuits over the mandatory slaughter of his herd, apparently to stop vegetation depletion. As a show of solidarity, Sara developed a multi-year series of creations called Pile O'Sápmi including a huge curtain of 400 reindeer skulls, which was displayed at the 2017's show Documenta 14 and later obtained by the public gallery, where it is displayed in the entrance.

Art as Awareness

Among the community, art is the only sphere in which they can be listened to by the global community. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|