Maret Anne Sara: 'Art became necessary since nothing else helped'

"This year's Hyundai Commission at Tate Modern is by Máret Ánne Sara, a Sámi-Norwegian artist who makes sculpture and installations using the materials that surround her and sustain her community in Sápmi, the territory of the indigenous Sámi people, which spans northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Sara's monumental new Turbine Hall installation is her first major work in the UK. The artist's other significant international exhibitions include the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022 and Documenta 14 in Kassel in 2017."

"We used to have cold, dry stable temperatures in the winter months, which made good grazing; but now due to the fluctuations of climate change, we have much wetter winters and temperatures fluctuating from -40ºC to above 10ºC. When rain falls on cold ground, it freezes into an ice crust that traps the lichen underneath. Layers of ice or compacted snow can build up and prevent animals, including reindeer, from accessing the food underneath."

Máret Ánne Sara is a Sámi-Norwegian artist who creates sculptures and installations from materials that sustain Sápmi communities. The Turbine Hall installation comprises Goavve, a 26m sculpture of reindeer hides with electrical elements and LEDs, and Geabbil, a maze-like structure modeled on the reindeer's nasal anatomy. Goavvi, meaning 'locked pastures', arises from increasingly unstable Arctic conditions causing freeze-thaw cycles and ice crusts that trap lichen and block reindeer grazing. Five consecutive years of goavvi have occurred in Sápmi, embodying a lived reality that parallels extreme weather and ecological disruptions globally.

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