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Guests to the renowned gallery are familiar to surprising displays in its spacious Turbine Hall. They've relaxed under an man-made sun, descended down helter skelters, and witnessed robotic jellyfish drifting through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be immersing themselves in the detailed nasal cavities of a reindeer. The current artist commission for this cavernous space—developed by Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara—invites visitors into a maze-like construction modeled after the expanded interior of a reindeer's nasal airways. Inside, they can stroll around or unwind on pelts, tuning in on earphones to Sámi elders imparting narratives and knowledge.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

Why the nose? It could appear playful, but the installation pays tribute to a obscure scientific wonder: researchers have uncovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the incoming air it takes in by eighty degrees, allowing the creature to survive in inhospitable Arctic temperatures. Scaling the nose to bigger than a person, Sara says, "produces a sense of insignificance that you as a individual are not superior over nature." Sara is a ex- journalist, young adult author, and environmental activist, who hails from a herding family in the far north of Norway. "Perhaps that fosters the chance to change your viewpoint or trigger some humbleness," she continues.

A Celebration to Indigenous Heritage

The winding design is one of several features in Sara's absorbing commission honoring the culture, understanding, and beliefs of the Sámi, Europe's only Indigenous people. Partially migratory, the Sámi count about 100,000 people ranged across northern Norway, Finland, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an territory they call Sápmi). They have faced oppression, cultural suppression, and eradication of their tongue by all four states. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an creature at the heart of the Sámi cosmology and founding narrative, the art also draws attention to the community's issues associated with the climate crisis, property rights, and imperialism.

Meaning in Elements

At the lengthy entry incline, there's a towering, 26-metre sculpture of reindeer hides ensnared by electrical wires. It represents a analogy for the political and economic systems constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part heavenly staircase, this section of the exhibit, called Goavve-, relates to the Sámi word for an harsh environmental condition, in which dense coatings of ice appear as changing conditions melt and ice over the snow, encasing the reindeers' primary cold-season food, fungus. The condition is a result of planetary warming, which is happening up to at an accelerated rate in the Polar region than in other regions.

Three years ago, I visited Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a goavvi winter and accompanied Sámi pastoralists on their snowmobiles in biting cold as they transported carts of supplementary feed on to the barren Arctic plains to distribute through labor. The reindeer gathered round us, scratching the icy ground in vain for lichen-covered bits. This costly and labour-intensive process is having a severe effect on animal rearing—and on the animals' self-sufficiency. Yet the other option is malnutrition. As goavvi winters become routine, reindeer are succumbing—some from hunger, others drowning after falling into lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. To some extent, the installation is a tribute to them. "With the layering of elements, in a way I'm introducing the condition to London," says Sara.

Opposing Worldviews

This artwork also highlights the clear contrast between the modern understanding of energy as a commodity to be harnessed for gain and existence and the Sámi outlook of life force as an innate power in creatures, people, and land. This venue's history as a coal and oil power station is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi consider environmental exploitation by regional governments. While attempting to be standard bearers for sustainable power, Scandinavian countries have disagreed with the Sámi over the building of wind energy projects, hydroelectric dams, and extraction sites on their native soil; the Sámi argue their legal protections, livelihoods, and way of life are at risk. "It's very difficult being such a small minority to defend yourself when the arguments are based on environmental protection," Sara notes. "Resource exploitation has adopted the discourse of ecology, but yet it's just striving to find more suitable ways to maintain habits of use."

Individual Challenges

The artist and her kin have themselves disagreed with the Norwegian government over its tightening regulations on reindeer management. A few years ago, Sara's brother undertook a series of unsuccessful court actions over the mandatory slaughter of his animals, supposedly to stop excessive feeding. As a show of solidarity, Sara produced a four-year series of artworks called Pile O'Sápmi including a massive screen of numerous reindeer skulls, which was shown at the the art exhibition Documenta 14 and later acquired by the public gallery, where it hangs in the lobby.

Creative Expression as Activism

For many Sámi, visual expression appears the only sphere in which they can be heard by the global community. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|