Biography
Máret Ánne Sara is an author and artist working in the mediums of sculpture, installation, collage, and drawing. Born in 1983 to a Sámi reindeer-herding family, Sara is based in Guovdageaidnu (Kautokeino) in the Norwegian part of the Sápmi, the ancestral territory of the Sámi people.
At the heart of Sara’s practice is an expression of the Sámi worldview. For Sara and her community, reindeer are not simply central to one’s livelihood—they activate a living symbiosis of humans, animals, and land. “I tell my stories through the reindeer,” says Sara, “because what happens to the reindeer also happens to us.” Reindeer bones, dried reindeer stomachs, preserved reindeer hides, even the smell of reindeer milk, coalesce in her work in profound, lyrical sculptures and installations that map cycles of life, death, and rebirth. Highlighting the interdependence of human and animal lives—and themes of sustainability, reusability, and Indigenous sovereignty—Sara’s art underscores the necessity of Sámi knowledge systems in preserving reciprocal relationships among animals, land, water, and humans.
Sara first gained international attention in 2016, when her brother, Jovsset Ánte Sara, sued the Norwegian state to halt the forced culling of his reindeer herds. In solidarity, Sara hauled 200 bloody severed reindeer heads to the Inner Finnmark District Court, stacking them in a pile outside the courthouse in the middle of the night. This act of protest against the state-mandated slaughter—her “desperate scream for help,” as Sara has called it—became the first iteration of her multidisciplinary Pile o’Sápmi (2016–) project. In 2017, at Documenta 14 in Kassel—and, later in front of the Norwegian Supreme Court in Oslo—Sara reconfigured the installation as Pile o’Sápmi-Supreme, a monumental hanging sculpture consisting of 400 bullet-pierced reindeer skulls strung together to form the shape of the Sápmi flag. Acquired by the National Gallery in Norway in 2018, Pile o’Sápmi-Supreme is at once a searing indictment of the Norwegian state and a powerful assertion of Indigenous self-determination.
As a key part of her practice, Sara is also a deep supporter of Sámi creative life. In addition to creating posters, album covers, and logos for artists, designers, and institutions in her community, Sara is also a co-founder of Dáiddadállu Artist Collective, an organization dedicated to providing the infrastructure to support the visual artists, filmmakers, graphic designers, authors, musicians, and dancers of the Sápmi. At the Venice Biennale in 2022, with Pauliina Feodoroff and Anders Sunna, Sara co-organized the “The Sámi Pavilion,” an “Indigenization” of the Nordic pavilion that highlighted Sámi ancestral relations, Sámi knowledge and learning, and Sámi spiritual perspectives.
Sara has been the recipient of many solo exhibitions, including, most recently, the prestigious Tate Modern Hyundai Commission at the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern (2025–26). In addition, Sara has had shows at Møre og Romsdal Kunstsenter (2023, Molde, Norway); Stiklestad Nasjonale Kultursenter (2023, Stiklestad, Norway); RiddoDuottarMuseat – Guovdageainnu gilišillju (2021, Guovdageainnu [Kautokeino], Norway); and Kulturens hus (2015, Luleå, Sweden). Sara has also appeared in many group exhibitions, including presentations at the National Museum of Norway (2025, 2022, Oslo); Nord Norsk Kunstmuseum (2025, Tromsø); Akureyri Art Museum (2024, Iceland); MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (2023, Brazil); Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (2023, Halifax); Lillehammer Kunstmuseum (2023, Norway); The Sámi pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2022); and Kunsthal Charlottenborg (2020–21, Copenhagen).
In addition to her work as a visual artist, Sara is also a published author. Her Sámi-language young adult fantasy novels Ilmmiid gaskkas (Between Worlds) (2013) and Doaresbealde doali (2014) were released by the Sámi publishing house DAT and translated into Norwegian and English. In 2014, Ilmmiid gaskkas (Between Worlds) was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize for Children’s and Young People’s Literature.
In 2021, Sara was shortlisted for the major Norwegian art prize Sandefjord Kunstforenings Kunstpris. In 2024, she was selected to design the stage curtain for the new Sámi national Theater in Guovdageaidnu.
