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Attendees to the renowned gallery are accustomed to surprising displays in its vast Turbine Hall. They've sunbathed under an man-made sun, glided down spiral slides, and observed automated sea creatures drifting through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be venturing themselves in the complex nasal cavities of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this huge space—designed by Native Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites gallerygoers into a labyrinthine design based on the expanded interior of a reindeer's nasal passages. Inside, they can stroll around or chill out on skins, tuning in on earphones to community leaders telling narratives and wisdom.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why choose the nasal structure? It could seem playful, but the installation celebrates a rarely recognized natural marvel: researchers have uncovered that in less than one second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the ambient air it inhales by 80°C, allowing the animal to survive in extreme Arctic climates. Expanding the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara explains, "generates a feeling of insignificance that you as a human being are not superior over nature." She is a former journalist, young adult author, and environmental activist, who comes from a pastoral family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Maybe that generates the chance to shift your viewpoint or evoke some modesty," she continues.

A Celebration to Indigenous Heritage

The maze-like design is among various features in Sara's immersive exhibition honoring the culture, understanding, and philosophy of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Partially migratory, the Sámi total about 100,000 people spread across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an region they call Sápmi). They have endured discrimination, cultural suppression, and suppression of their language by all four countries. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi belief system and origin tale, the installation also spotlights the group's issues associated with the environmental emergency, land dispossession, and external control.

Meaning in Materials

Along the long entry incline, there's a looming, 26-meter structure of pelts ensnared by electrical wires. It can be read as a symbol for the political and economic systems limiting the Sámi. Part pylon, part celestial ladder, this component of the installation, called Goavve-, relates to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, wherein thick sheets of ice form as varying conditions thaw and ice over the snow, locking in the reindeers' key cold-season food, lichen. Goavvi is a result of global heating, which is occurring up to four times faster in the Arctic than globally.

Previously, I met with Sara in a remote town during a icy season and went with Sámi reindeer keepers on their snowmobiles in biting cold as they hauled containers of animal nutrition on to the exposed tundra to dispense through labor. The herd surrounded round us, scratching the icy ground in vain attempts for lichen-covered pieces. This expensive and demanding procedure is having a drastic impact on herding practices—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. Yet the alternative is starvation. As goavvi winters become commonplace, reindeer are perishing—some from lack of food, others drowning after plunging into streams through prematurely melting ice. On one level, the work is a monument to them. "With the layering of components, in a way I'm introducing the condition to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

The installation also highlights the stark divergence between the modern understanding of power as a commodity to be utilized for economic benefit and livelihood and the Sámi philosophy of life force as an innate life force in creatures, individuals, and the environment. The gallery's past as a coal and oil power station is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi consider eco-imperialism by regional governments. In their efforts to be standard bearers for renewable energy, these states have clashed with the Sámi over the building of windfarms, hydroelectric dams, and mines on their native soil; the Sámi argue their legal protections, livelihoods, and way of life are at risk. "It's challenging being such a limited population to protect your rights when the arguments are based on global sustainability," Sara comments. "Extractivism has co-opted the rhetoric of environmentalism, but yet it's just aiming to find more suitable ways to continue practices of consumption."

Personal Challenges

She and her relatives have personally clashed with the state authorities over its tightening rules on reindeer management. In 2016, Sara's sibling undertook a series of ultimately unsuccessful legal cases over the forced culling of his animals, ostensibly to stop vegetation depletion. In support, Sara created a multi-year collection of pieces called Pile O'Sápmi including a massive curtain of numerous reindeer skulls, which was exhibited at the 2017 show Documenta 14 and later obtained by the National Museum of Oslo, where it is displayed in the entrance.

The Role of Art in Activism

For many Sámi, art seems the exclusive realm in which they can be understood by outsiders. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|