Photographer, author and teacher Walid Raad is one of the most influential figures on the international art scene.

Raad’s works have been shown in the Louvre, Documenta 11 and 13, Kunsthalle Zurich, The Whitechapel Art Gallery, Festival d’Automne, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, The Venice Biennale, The Hamburger Bahnhof, Homeworks Festival Beirut and numerous other museums and venues in Europe, the Middle East, and Americas. He is also the recipient of the Hasselblad Award (2011), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2009), the Alpert Award in Visual Arts (2007), the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize (2007), and the Camera Austria Award (2005).

In his lecture opening IMPACT13, Raad will present an overview of his recent project ›Scratching on Things I Could Disavow‹. His presentation concentrates on the emergent infrastructures for the arts in the Arab world (especially in the Gulf), the writings of Jalal Toufic, as well as some of the forms and gestures he has been producing.