Lebanese Arrtist Walid Raad-Scratching on things I could disavow at MoMA

Walid Raad (b. Lebanon 1967) an internationally acclaimed artist, has assembled an installation at MoMA that is astounding for its ambitious attempt to archive, authenticate and validate Middle Eastern Art.  Most striking is Raad's questioning of what remains and it's validity.  This is construed within a political construct that demands we ponder art within the context of war & mass destruction.  The large jagged white wall that bisects the exhibit on the 2nd floor is from an original remaining wall in Beirut.  This is next to an model replica of the 1st white cube art gallery.  The miniature art in the model is indistinguishable and homogoneous.  The only discernable piece is a colored non-audio video of the artist speaking.  The import of the work is to establish a sense for what remains from the vast destruction of works and an acknowledgement of those 100,000+ lives killed, wounded and the 1,000,000's of people displaced.  There are recurring themes of military tacticle maneuvers and of foreign powers that figured into the Lebanese Civil War 1975-90.  Architectural installations have an incoherent sense of disassembly and construction.  I felt a somber ambience of loss and a calming sense of continuity.  The artworks on the 3rd floor appears as morphed ancient relics.  These works are arresting and quite haunting.  There is a double entredre to what the items represent; ancient artifacts or modern compilations?  Perhaps this stems from the artists' rebukes to being asked to exhibit repeatedly in Lebanon until he accepted in 2008. Raad claims,"There's the problem wtih facts.  Once they fall apart, they are very difficult to put back."  "Scratching on things I could disavow: is a humpty dumpty historical & political response that felt beguiling, combatative and calming.