Margaret Raspé has explored and upended structures of perception in an oeuvre that spans five decades and encompasses film, performance, photography, sounds works, and large-scale installation. In her acclaimed and radically self-reflexive “camera helmet” films from the 1970s and 80s, Raspé captured the central perspective of her own gaze doing housework and other routine tasks. Always using lived reality as a starting point, later works comprise ephemeral responses to their own environments, addressing issues of ecology and sustainability, spirituality and healing, while maintaining a primary concern with perception.
Raspé’s films attracted international attention early on and were shown at the Anthology Film Archives, New York, and the Hayward Gallery, London, among others. Raspé's house and garden in Berlin-Zehlendorf served as a place for artistic and social exchange, as well as numerous outdoor exhibitions, primarily with the Vienna Actionists, Wiener Gruppe, and members of the Berlin fluxus scene. Her work was the subject of a long-overdue retrospective exhibition at Haus am Waldsee in Berlin in 2023. Her films are part of the collections of the London Filmmakers’ Coop and the Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin.
A major catalogue published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König with contributions by Karolin Meunier, Ghislaine Leung, Kari Rittenbach and Emily LaBarge, among others, is forthcoming. Raspé's first exhibition with Galerie Molitor will open in 2024.
