🔗 Share this article

Attendees to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unusual displays in its expansive Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an man-made sun, glided down spiral slides, and witnessed robotic jellyfish drifting through the air. But this marks the first time they will be immersing themselves in the intricate nasal chambers of a reindeer. The latest artist commission for this immense space—created by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes patrons into a labyrinthine design based on the expanded inside of a reindeer's nasal cavities. Once inside, they can meander around or unwind on skins, tuning in on earphones to community leaders imparting stories and wisdom.

The Significance of the Nose

What's the focus on the nose? It could appear quirky, but the exhibit honors a little-known biological feat: experts have discovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can heat the incoming air it breathes in by 80 degrees celsius, enabling the creature to thrive in extreme Arctic climates. Scaling the nose to larger than human size, Sara explains, "creates a feeling of inferiority that you as a human being are not superior over nature." The artist is a ex- reporter, children's author, and rights advocate, who is from a herding family in the far north of Norway. "Maybe that generates the chance to change your viewpoint or spark some modesty," she adds.

An Homage to Sámi Culture

The winding installation is among various elements in Sara's engaging commission showcasing the culture, science, and beliefs of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Partially migratory, the Sámi count about 100,000 people distributed across northern Norway, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and the Russian Arctic (an area they call Sápmi). They've endured discrimination, integration policies, and suppression of their tongue by all four states. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi mythology and origin tale, the art also spotlights the people's struggles relating to the climate crisis, property rights, and imperialism.

Meaning in Elements

Along the extended access incline, there's a soaring, 26-meter structure of skins entangled by utility lines. It can be read as a analogy for the governance and financial structures constraining the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part celestial ladder, this section of the artwork, titled Goavve-, refers to the Sámi name for an severe climatic event, whereby solid sheets of ice form as fluctuating weather melt and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' key winter food, moss. Goavvi is a outcome of global heating, which is happening up to at an accelerated rate in the Far North than in other regions.

Three years ago, I traveled to see Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi reindeer keepers on their snowmobiles in biting cold as they carried carts of food pellets on to the barren Arctic plains to distribute through labor. The reindeer crowded round us, scratching the frozen ground in futility for mossy pieces. This expensive and demanding method is having a drastic effect on herding practices—and on the animals' independence. However the alternative is death. When such conditions become commonplace, reindeer are succumbing—a number from starvation, others suffocating after sinking in water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. In a sense, the work is a monument to them. "Through the stacking of materials, in a way I'm bringing the goavvi to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Perspectives

The sculpture also underscores the stark contrast between the industrial interpretation of electricity as a resource to be harnessed for gain and survival and the Sámi outlook of vitality as an innate life force in animals, people, and nature. Tate Modern's legacy as a industrial facility is tied up in this, as is what the Sámi view as green colonialism by Nordic countries. While attempting to be leaders for renewable energy, Nordic nations have clashed with the Sámi over the construction of wind energy projects, river barriers, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi argue their human rights, livelihoods, and culture are endangered. "It's very difficult being such a small minority to defend yourself when the reasons are based on environmental protection," Sara notes. "Extractivism has appropriated the rhetoric of environmentalism, but still it's just aiming to find better ways to persist in patterns of use."

Individual Challenges

She and her family have personally disagreed with the national administration over its tightening regulations on herding. In 2016, Sara's brother initiated a sequence of unsuccessful court actions over the required reduction of his animals, apparently to stop vegetation depletion. As a show of solidarity, Sara created a multi-year series of pieces called Pile O'Sápmi featuring a huge screen of numerous animal bones, which was displayed at the the art exhibition Documenta 14 and later obtained by the national institution, where it is displayed in the lobby.

The Role of Art in Advocacy

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