Public Time serves as a second volume to the publication Out of Beirut, published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name organized by Modern Art Oxford between May and July 2006.

This book contains the edited transcripts of the symposium Public Time, which took place in Oxford in May 2006. The symposium brought together an international panel of artists, curators, critics and writers with a view to giving voice to issues facing contemporary artists in Beirut.