In November I had the privilege of travelling to Beirut during the week of the Homeworks III forum on Cultural Practice 2005 — an international platform of lectures, screenings, exhibitions that engaged both local and international art practitioners, theorists, writers, philosophers among many others. Stemming from both my stay in Beirut and continued research since, I began thinking more about some of the issues which became apparent to me during this brief but intense period — especially in regard to the critical absence of public space and how this impacts upon the pattern of creative behaviour in the city. On a larger scale, the diminishment of public space in Beirut itself could also be taken as an acute symptom of the disappearing conditions of public space in the world at large, synonymous with the phenomenon of globalisation and globalisation’s abstraction from localised, spatial frames. The following observations in the text Constructing a Cultural Grammar in a Fragmented City (December 2005), are intended to capture some insights into the conditions in Beirut, and also to recognise and to further consider the development of possible formats of support and engagement with artistic practice in the region through the ECF’s first project of its new arts programme, ALMOSTREAL.