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Attendees to the renowned gallery are accustomed to unexpected displays in its vast Turbine Hall. They've basked under an man-made sun, slid down spiral slides, and observed robotic sea creatures floating through the air. Yet this marks the inaugural time they will be venturing themselves in the detailed nasal chambers of a reindeer. The current artist commission for this huge space—designed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes gallerygoers into a maze-like structure inspired by the expanded inside of a reindeer's nasal airways. Inside, they can stroll around or relax on pelts, listening on earphones to tribal seniors imparting tales and wisdom.

Focus on the Nasal Passages

What's the focus on the nose? It may appear quirky, but the exhibit pays tribute to a obscure scientific wonder: researchers have uncovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can warm the surrounding air it breathes in by 80°C, enabling the animal to endure in extreme Arctic conditions. Enlarging the nose to human-scale dimensions, Sara says, "produces a feeling of inferiority that you as a person are not in control over nature." She is a ex- writer, young adult author, and rights advocate, who comes from a herding family in northern Norway. "Maybe that fosters the potential to change your viewpoint or evoke some humbleness," she states.

A Celebration to Sámi Culture

The maze-like design is one of several components in Sara's absorbing exhibition celebrating the heritage, knowledge, and philosophy of the Sámi, the sole native group in Europe. Semi-nomadic, the Sámi count about 100,000 people spread across the Norwegian north, Finland, Sweden, and the Kola region (an area they call Sápmi). They've endured oppression, integration policies, and eradication of their language by all four countries. By focusing on the reindeer, an creature at the center of the Sámi belief system and creation story, the work also highlights the people's issues connected to the environmental emergency, land dispossession, and imperialism.

Meaning in Elements

At the long entrance incline, there's a looming, 26-metre structure of pelts ensnared by electrical wires. It serves as a metaphor for the political and economic systems restricting the Sámi. Like an electrical tower, part heavenly staircase, this part of the artwork, titled Goavve-, refers to the Sámi word for an harsh environmental condition, in which thick coatings of ice form as changing weather liquefy and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' primary cold-season sustenance, lichen. The condition is a consequence of climate change, which is taking place up to much more rapidly in the Polar region than elsewhere.

A few years back, I met with Sara in the Norwegian far north during a icy season and went with Sámi pastoralists on their Arctic vehicles in freezing temperatures as they hauled carts of food pellets on to the barren frozen landscape to distribute by hand. The reindeer surrounded round us, scratching the icy ground in vain attempts for mossy pieces. This costly and labour-intensive process is having a significant impact on reindeer husbandry—and on the animals' independence. However the alternative is starvation. When such conditions become commonplace, reindeer are succumbing—some from hunger, others suffocating after plunging into water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. To some extent, the installation is a monument to them. "Through the stacking of elements, in a way I'm introducing the condition to London," says Sara.

Opposing Perspectives

The sculpture also emphasizes the clear contrast between the modern interpretation of energy as a asset to be utilized for profit and existence and the Sámi philosophy of energy as an inherent life force in creatures, people, and the environment. The gallery's history as a coal and oil power station is connected to this, as is what the Sámi consider environmental exploitation by Nordic countries. As they strive to be standard bearers for sustainable power, Scandinavian countries have disagreed with the Sámi over the development of turbine fields, water power facilities, and digging operations on their traditional territory; the Sámi contend their legal protections, incomes, and traditions are endangered. "It's hard being such a limited population to stand your ground when the justifications are rooted in environmental protection," Sara comments. "Mining practices has adopted the rhetoric of sustainability, but yet it's just striving to find alternative ways to maintain patterns of expenditure."

Personal Conflicts

She and her kin have themselves clashed with the state authorities over its increasingly stringent regulations on herding. A few years ago, Sara's brother initiated a sequence of finally failed lawsuits over the forced culling of his livestock, ostensibly to stop overgrazing. As a show of solidarity, Sara developed a multi-year collection of pieces titled Pile O'Sápmi including a colossal screen of four hundred reindeer skulls, which was shown at the 2017 art exhibition Documenta 14 and later purchased by the National Museum of Oslo, where it is displayed in the entrance.

The Role of Art in Activism

For numerous Indigenous people, creative work appears the only domain in which they can be heard by outsiders. Two years ago, Sara was {one of three|among a group of|