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Attendees to the renowned gallery are used to surprising experiences in its vast Turbine Hall. They have sunbathed under an simulated sun, slid down helter skelters, and observed robotic sea creatures hovering through the air. However this marks the initial time they will be immersing themselves in the detailed nose chambers of a reindeer. The current artistic project for this cavernous space—developed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—invites patrons into a maze-like construction modeled after the scaled-up inside of a reindeer's nasal passages. Upon entering, they can meander around or relax on skins, listening on headphones to Sámi elders sharing stories and insights.

Why the Nose?

Why the nose? It might seem playful, but the exhibit pays tribute to a obscure natural marvel: researchers have discovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the incoming air it breathes in by 80°C, allowing the animal to endure in extreme Arctic temperatures. Enlarging the nose to larger than human size, Sara explains, "generates a feeling of inferiority that you as a individual are not dominant over nature." The artist is a ex- reporter, young adult author, and rights advocate, who is from a reindeer-herding family in northern Norway. "Maybe that generates the possibility to change your viewpoint or trigger some humility," she adds.

A Celebration to Traditional Ways

The labyrinthine installation is part of a components in Sara's engaging exhibition honoring the heritage, science, and worldview of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Partially migratory, the Sámi count roughly 100,000 people distributed across the Norwegian north, Finland, Sweden, and the Kola region (an area they call Sápmi). They have endured persecution, forced assimilation, and repression of their language by all four countries. Through highlighting the reindeer, an animal at the core of the Sámi mythology and creation story, the installation also spotlights the group's struggles connected to the climate crisis, land dispossession, and colonialism.

Metaphor in Elements

Along the extended entrance incline, there's a soaring, 26-metre structure of skins entangled by power and light cables. It serves as a symbol for the societal frameworks restricting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part heavenly staircase, this section of the exhibit, named Goavve-, points to the Sámi term for an harsh environmental condition, in which dense sheets of ice form as changing temperatures liquefy and ice over the snow, encasing the reindeers' primary cold-season food, fungus. The condition is a result of climate change, which is taking place up to much more rapidly in the Arctic than elsewhere.

Three years ago, I met with Sara in Guovdageaidnu during a severe cold period and accompanied Sámi reindeer keepers on their snowmobiles in chilly conditions as they hauled containers of supplementary feed on to the barren frozen landscape to dispense by hand. The herd gathered round us, scratching the frozen ground in futility for vegetative morsels. This expensive and labour-intensive procedure is having a drastic impact on animal rearing—and on the animals' independence. Yet the alternative is starvation. When such conditions become commonplace, reindeer are succumbing—a number from hunger, others drowning after falling into streams through prematurely melting ice. In a sense, the art is a monument to them. "With the layering of materials, in a way I'm transporting the condition to London," says Sara.

Diverging Perspectives

The installation also highlights the stark difference between the modern view of energy as a asset to be harnessed for gain and existence and the Sámi philosophy of vitality as an innate essence in creatures, individuals, and land. The gallery's legacy as a coal and oil power station is connected to this, as is what the Sámi see as green colonialism by Scandinavian states. In their efforts to be leaders for clean sources, these states have locked horns with the Sámi over the development of wind energy projects, water power facilities, and mines on their ancestral land; the Sámi assert their fundamental freedoms, ways of life, and traditions are at risk. "It's challenging being such a limited population to defend yourself when the arguments are based on environmental protection," Sara comments. "Resource exploitation has co-opted the language of sustainability, but nonetheless it's just attempting to find alternative ways to continue habits of use."

Individual Challenges

Sara and her family have themselves clashed with the national administration over its ever-stricter regulations on herding. In 2016, Sara's sibling undertook a sequence of unsuccessful lawsuits over the forced culling of his herd, ostensibly to stop excessive feeding. In support, Sara produced a multi-year series of pieces titled Pile O'Sápmi including a colossal curtain of numerous animal bones, which was shown at the 2017 art exhibition Documenta 14 and later obtained by the National Museum of Oslo, where it resides in the entryway.

Art as Activism

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