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Attendees to Tate Modern are accustomed to surprising displays in its vast Turbine Hall. They have basked under an man-made sun, glided down spiral slides, and witnessed robotic sea creatures drifting through the air. But this marks the initial time they will be engaging themselves in the detailed nasal passages of a reindeer. The current creative installation for this immense space—designed by Indigenous Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—invites patrons into a labyrinthine construction modeled after the enlarged inside of a reindeer's nasal cavities. Once inside, they can wander around or unwind on skins, tuning in on earphones to Sámi elders sharing tales and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

Why choose the nasal structure? It could seem playful, but the artwork honors a obscure natural marvel: scientists have uncovered that in under a second, the reindeer's nose can heat the ambient air it takes in by 80°C, allowing the creature to endure in inhospitable Arctic temperatures. Enlarging the nose to bigger than a person, Sara explains, "produces a feeling of inferiority that you as a human being are not dominant over nature." Sara is a ex- journalist, writer for kids, and environmental activist, who comes from a herding family in northern Norway. "Maybe that fosters the chance to alter your perspective or evoke some humbleness," she continues.

A Tribute to Traditional Ways

The labyrinthine installation is part of a components in Sara's engaging exhibition honoring the traditions, understanding, and beliefs of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Partially migratory, the Sámi total roughly 100,000 people spread across the Norwegian north, Finland, Sweden, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an area they call Sápmi). They've experienced discrimination, integration policies, and repression of their language by all four countries. Through highlighting the reindeer, an animal at the core of the Sámi cosmology and founding narrative, the art also draws attention to the community's issues associated with the climate crisis, land dispossession, and colonialism.

Meaning in Elements

At the extended entrance ramp, there's a towering, 26-metre formation of reindeer hides ensnared by power and light cables. It can be read as a analogy for the governance and financial structures constraining the Sámi. Part pylon, part heavenly staircase, this section of the exhibit, titled Goavve-, refers to the Sámi term for an severe climatic event, whereby dense layers of ice develop as changing conditions liquefy and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' key winter nourishment, lichen. Goavvi is a consequence of planetary warming, which is taking place up to much more rapidly in the Far North than globally.

Previously, I traveled to see Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a icy season and accompanied Sámi pastoralists on their Arctic vehicles in biting cold as they transported trailers of supplementary feed on to the barren tundra to provide through labor. These animals crowded round us, digging the frozen ground in vain attempts for mossy morsels. This resource-intensive and demanding procedure is having a significant effect on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' natural survival. Yet the other option is death. When such conditions become routine, reindeer are dying—a number from starvation, others drowning after sinking in lakes and rivers through unstable frozen surfaces. In a sense, the installation is a memorial to them. "By overlapping of materials, in a way I'm bringing the phenomenon to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Belief Systems

The sculpture also emphasizes the sharp difference between the industrial view of power as a commodity to be utilized for profit and existence and the Sámi philosophy of energy as an natural life force in animals, humans, and the environment. This venue's past as a coal and oil power station is connected to this, as is what the Sámi view as green colonialism by Nordic countries. While attempting to be exemplars for sustainable power, Scandinavian countries have clashed with the Sámi over the building of turbine fields, river barriers, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi assert their fundamental freedoms, livelihoods, and culture are threatened. "It's very difficult being such a limited population to stand your ground when the reasons are grounded in global sustainability," Sara comments. "Mining practices has adopted the rhetoric of environmentalism, but yet it's just attempting to find alternative ways to persist in patterns of use."

Personal Challenges

Sara and her family have personally disagreed with the state authorities over its increasingly stringent regulations on animal husbandry. A few years ago, Sara's sibling undertook a sequence of ultimately unsuccessful court actions over the required reduction of his herd, ostensibly to stop vegetation depletion. In support, Sara produced a four-year series of creations named Pile O'Sápmi comprising a massive screen of 400 reindeer skulls, which was displayed at the the art exhibition Documenta 14 and later purchased by the national institution, where it hangs in the entryway.

The Role of Art in Awareness

For many Sámi, visual expression is the sole realm in which they can be listened to by people of other nations. In 2022, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|