Margaret Raspé
Margaret Raspé, Wasser ist nicht mehr Wasser (Water Is No Longer Water), 1990. Performance view, Bzura River, Łódź. Photo: Dagmar Uhde.
Margaret Raspé (*1933, Breslau, now Wrocław, Poland, ✝2023, Berlin) was a German artist known for her experimental work in film, performance, and painting, which for more than five decades explored perception, the automation of everyday actions, and the relationship between the human body and mechanical processes. Born in Breslau as Margaret Ranke, she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and the Academy of Arts in Berlin and drew inspiration from Viennese Actionism and Fluxus, developing a practice that combined performance, filmmaking, and conceptual approaches in order to challenge conventional structures of seeing and doing. Her innovative techniques, such as using head-mounted cameras to record routine domestic tasks, transformed mundane activities into profound examinations of human-machine interaction and perception, earning her recognition in exhibitions and tributes within the contemporary art world.