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Visitors to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unusual experiences in its spacious Turbine Hall. They've sunbathed under an man-made sun, descended down amusement rides, and seen automated sea creatures drifting through the air. But this marks the first time they will be venturing themselves in the intricate nose chambers of a reindeer. The current artistic project for this immense space—created by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—invites patrons into a winding structure inspired by the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nasal airways. Inside, they can meander around or chill out on reindeer hides, listening on headphones to community leaders imparting narratives and insights.

Why the Nose?

Why the nose? It may appear playful, but the installation honors a obscure scientific wonder: scientists have uncovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can heat the surrounding air it takes in by 80°C, allowing the animal to thrive in harsh Arctic climates. Scaling the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara says, "creates a perception of smallness that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." The artist is a ex- journalist, children's author, and environmental activist, who is from a pastoral family in northern Norway. "Possibly that fosters the chance to shift your perspective or spark some humility," she adds.

A Tribute to Sámi Culture

The winding structure is one of several features in Sara's immersive art project showcasing the heritage, understanding, and philosophy of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Partially migratory, the Sámi number approximately 100,000 people ranged across the Norwegian north, the Finnish Arctic, the Swedish Lapland, and the Kola region (an area they call Sápmi). They have faced oppression, cultural suppression, and repression of their language by all four nations. With an emphasis on the reindeer, an creature at the core of the Sámi mythology and origin tale, the work also highlights the group's issues relating to the global warming, loss of territory, and imperialism.

Metaphor in Components

Along the extended access ramp, there's a looming, 26-metre structure of reindeer hides ensnared by power and light cables. It serves as a metaphor for the societal frameworks constraining the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part heavenly staircase, this component of the exhibit, called Goavve-, points to the Sámi word for an extreme weather phenomenon, whereby solid layers of ice appear as fluctuating temperatures melt and solidify again the snow, encasing the reindeers' main cold-season sustenance, lichen. This phenomenon is a outcome of global heating, which is occurring up to at an accelerated rate in the Polar region than in other regions.

Three years ago, I met with Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a icy season and joined Sámi herders on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they hauled containers of food pellets on to the wind-scoured Arctic plains to distribute by hand. These animals crowded round us, digging the slippery ground in futility for lichen-covered morsels. This resource-intensive and laborious process is having a drastic impact on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' independence. However the choice is starvation. As goavvi winters become frequent, reindeer are succumbing—some from lack of food, others drowning after sinking in water bodies through prematurely melting ice. On one level, the work is a monument to them. "By overlapping of elements, in a way I'm introducing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Opposing Belief Systems

This artwork also emphasizes the sharp contrast between the modern view of power as a commodity to be utilized for profit and survival and the Sámi philosophy of vitality as an inherent essence in creatures, humans, and land. This venue's past as a industrial facility is connected to this, as is what the Sámi see as green colonialism by Nordic countries. While attempting to be leaders for clean sources, Nordic nations have disagreed with the Sámi over the development of wind energy projects, hydroelectric dams, and mines on their traditional territory; the Sámi contend their legal protections, livelihoods, and way of life are at risk. "It's very difficult being such a limited population to defend yourself when the reasons are rooted in environmental protection," Sara comments. "Mining practices has co-opted the rhetoric of environmentalism, but nonetheless it's just striving to find better ways to maintain patterns of consumption."

Individual Conflicts

Sara and her relatives have personally conflicted with the state authorities over its increasingly stringent regulations on herding. Previously, Sara's sibling initiated a series of unsuccessful lawsuits over the required reduction of his animals, apparently to stop excessive feeding. In support, Sara created a multi-year series of artworks titled Pile O'Sápmi comprising a huge curtain of numerous reindeer skulls, which was shown at the the show Documenta 14 and later acquired by the National Museum of Oslo, where it hangs in the lobby.

Art as Awareness

For numerous Indigenous people, creative work appears the sole sphere in which they can be understood by the global community. Recently, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|