Visitors to Tate Modern are used to unusual encounters in its vast Turbine Hall. They’ve sunbathed before an artificial sun, slid down helter skelters and witnessed AI-powered robotic jellyfish floating through the air. But this is the first time they will be taking a deep dive into a reindeer’s nose. The latest artist commission for the cavernous space – by the Indigenous Sámi artist Máret Ánne Sara – invites gallerygoers into a labyrinthine structure based on the scaled-up interior of a reindeer’s nasal passages. Once inside they can meander round or chill out on reindeer hides, listening on headphones to Sámi elders telling stories and imparting knowledge.
Why the nose? It might sound whimsical but the installation pays tribute to a little-known natural marvel: scientists have discovered that in under a second, the reindeer’s nose can heat the surrounding air it inhales by 80 degrees celsius, enabling the animal to survive in inhospitable Arctic temperatures. Scaling the nose up to larger than human size, Sara says, “creates a sense of inferiority that you as a human being are not dominant over nature”. The artist is a former journalist, children’s author and land defender, who comes from a reindeer-herding family in northern Norway. “Maybe that creates the potential to shift your perspective or trigger some humbleness,” she adds.
