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Guests to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unusual displays in its spacious Turbine Hall. They've sunbathed under an man-made sun, glided down spiral slides, and observed automated sea creatures hovering through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be engaging themselves in the intricate nose passages of a reindeer. The newest artistic project for this immense space—designed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—invites gallerygoers into a labyrinthine structure modeled after the expanded interior of a reindeer's nose passages. Upon entering, they can meander around or chill out on pelts, tuning in on headphones to Sámi elders imparting stories and insights.

The Significance of the Nose

What's the focus on the nose? It could appear quirky, but the artwork 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 surrounding air it inhales by eighty degrees, enabling the animal to thrive in extreme Arctic climates. Enlarging the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara says, "produces a sense of insignificance that you as a person are not dominant over nature." Sara is a ex- reporter, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who is from a pastoral family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Possibly that fosters the possibility to shift your outlook or trigger some humility," she states.

A Tribute to Indigenous Heritage

The maze-like structure is part of a features in Sara's engaging exhibition showcasing the heritage, understanding, and worldview of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi number about 100,000 people ranged across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They've faced persecution, integration policies, and repression of their dialect by all four states. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the core of the Sámi mythology and creation story, the art also highlights the people's issues relating to the global warming, property rights, and external control.

Metaphor in Materials

On the lengthy entrance ramp, there's a towering, 26-meter formation of pelts trapped by power and light cables. It can be read as a analogy for the political and economic systems restricting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this section of the exhibit, called Goavve-, points to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, in which dense coatings of ice form as varying weather melt and ice over the snow, encasing the reindeers' key cold-season sustenance, lichen. The condition is a result of planetary warming, which is happening up to four times faster in the Arctic than globally.

Previously, I met with Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a icy season and went with Sámi pastoralists on their snowmobiles in chilly conditions as they carried containers of food pellets on to the barren Arctic plains to provide by hand. The reindeer gathered round us, pawing the icy ground in vain for mossy bits. This costly and labour-intensive process is having a significant impact on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' independence. Yet the alternative is starvation. As goavvi winters become frequent, reindeer are perishing—a number from lack of food, others submerging after sinking in water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. To some extent, the installation is a memorial to them. "With the layering of materials, in a way I'm introducing the condition to London," says Sara.

Diverging Worldviews

The installation also underscores the stark divergence between the industrial understanding of energy as a asset to be exploited for gain and existence and the Sámi philosophy of energy as an innate power in animals, people, and nature. The gallery's history as a fossil fuel plant is linked with this, as is what the Sámi consider eco-imperialism by regional governments. In their efforts to be standard bearers for sustainable power, Nordic nations have clashed with the Sámi over the building of wind energy projects, river barriers, and mines on their ancestral land; the Sámi assert their human rights, incomes, and way of life are at risk. "It's challenging being such a limited population to defend yourself when the reasons are based on saving the world," Sara observes. "Resource exploitation has appropriated the rhetoric of ecology, but yet it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to continue practices of consumption."

Individual Challenges

The artist and her kin have themselves disagreed with the state authorities over its tightening policies on reindeer management. Previously, Sara's brother undertook a set of unsuccessful court actions over the forced culling of his livestock, apparently to stop overgrazing. In support, Sara produced a four-year set of pieces titled Pile O'Sápmi featuring a huge drape of four hundred animal bones, which was displayed at the 2017's event Documenta 14 and later obtained by the national institution, where it is displayed in the lobby.

The Role of Art in Advocacy

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