Jo'burg Art Fair Stirs Up Debate Celean Jacobson | Johannesburg, South Africa 14 March 2008 04:04 The first fair in Africa to focus on selling contemporary African art offers plenty of work reflecting the continent's war, disease and poverty: sculptures of guns with spikes; dark, bloody etchings; installations on the dangers of unprotected sex. Masks, fetishes and the odd protest poster from South Africa's resistance art movement also are on display. But so is art with more universal themes, such as a wistful sculpture of mother and child. Other work is irreverent, pop and cheeky. The kaleidoscope of images and themes is a fitting backdrop for the debate the Jo'burg Art Fair has sparked about what it means to be African and an artist. The fair also has the art world buzzing about tensions between art and commerce. "Whatever we call African art, I think the African artist exists," said Simon Njami, a Cameroon-born, Paris-based curator who spoke at Thursday&
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