Delving into the Aroma of Fear: Máret Ánne Sara Transforms Tate's Exhibition Space with Arctic Deer Inspired Installation

Attendees to the renowned gallery are used to surprising experiences in its expansive Turbine Hall. They've relaxed under an man-made sun, slid down amusement rides, and observed automated jellyfish drifting through the air. But this marks the initial time they will be venturing themselves in the intricate nasal cavities of a reindeer. The newest artist commission for this cavernous space—designed by Native Sámi creator Máret Ánne Sara—welcomes patrons into a maze-like design inspired by the scaled-up inside of a reindeer's nasal passages. Once inside, they can meander around or relax on pelts, tuning in on earphones to community leaders imparting stories and knowledge.

Why the Nose?

What's the focus on the nose? It could sound quirky, but the exhibit honors a little-known natural marvel: experts have uncovered that in a fraction of a second, the reindeer's nose can raise the temperature of the ambient air it inhales by eighty degrees, helping the creature to endure in harsh Arctic temperatures. Expanding the nose to larger than human size, Sara notes, "creates a feeling of smallness that you as a individual are not in control over nature." Sara is a ex- writer, writer for kids, and rights advocate, who comes from a herding family in the Norwegian Arctic. "Possibly that generates the potential to alter your outlook or spark some humility," she adds.

A Tribute to Traditional Ways

The labyrinthine structure is among various features in Sara's immersive commission honoring the culture, knowledge, and philosophy of the Sámi, the continent's original inhabitants. Traditionally mobile, the Sámi count about 100,000 people spread across the Norwegian north, Finland, Sweden, and Russia's Kola Peninsula (an region they call Sápmi). They've experienced discrimination, integration policies, and eradication of their dialect by all four nations. Through highlighting the reindeer, an creature at the core of the Sámi cosmology and founding narrative, the installation also spotlights the people's struggles connected to the global warming, loss of territory, and colonialism.

Symbolism in Components

Along the long entry ramp, there's a soaring, 26-meter formation of skins ensnared by utility lines. It can be read as a metaphor for the societal frameworks restricting the Sámi. Partly a utility pole, part spiritual ascent, this part of the installation, named Goavve-, points to the Sámi name for an harsh environmental condition, whereby solid layers of ice appear as changing temperatures thaw and solidify again the snow, locking in the reindeers' key cold-season nourishment, moss. Goavvi is a result of global heating, which is taking place up to much more rapidly in the Polar region than globally.

Previously, I traveled to see Sara in a remote town during a severe cold period and went with Sámi herders on their motorized sleds in freezing temperatures as they carried containers of food pellets on to the exposed frozen landscape to provide manually. The herd surrounded round us, pawing the slippery ground in vain attempts for vegetative pieces. This expensive and labour-intensive method is having a drastic effect on animal rearing—and on the animals' independence. But the other option is malnutrition. As goavvi winters become routine, reindeer are succumbing—a number from lack of food, others submerging after falling into water bodies through unstable frozen surfaces. On one level, the installation is a memorial to them. "Through the stacking of components, in a way I'm bringing the condition to London," says Sara.

Contrasting Worldviews

This artwork also underscores the sharp contrast between the modern interpretation of energy as a commodity to be utilized for gain and survival and the Sámi outlook of life force as an inherent essence in creatures, individuals, and nature. This venue's past as a fossil fuel plant is linked with 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 locked horns with the Sámi over the construction of wind energy projects, river barriers, and digging operations on their ancestral land; the Sámi argue their fundamental freedoms, livelihoods, and traditions are at risk. "It's hard being such a limited population to defend yourself when the justifications are rooted in environmental protection," Sara observes. "Extractivism has appropriated the rhetoric of ecology, but yet it's just attempting to find more suitable ways to continue practices of use."

Family Struggles

She and her relatives have personally clashed with the national administration over its ever-stricter policies on animal husbandry. In 2016, Sara's brother undertook a set of unsuccessful court actions over the mandatory slaughter of his livestock, ostensibly to stop overgrazing. To back him, Sara created a multi-year series of artworks called Pile O'Sápmi including a massive screen of 400 animal bones, which was shown at the the show Documenta 14 and later obtained by the National Museum of Oslo, where it is displayed in the entrance.

The Role of Art in Activism

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