Bedu as a Theme in the Performance Gallery

Performance was developed at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery in response to the excellent collections which relate to performance. The new gallery opened in 2002 and Bedu masquerade is one of the central themes.

The gallery presents one of the large Bedu plank masks on open display. Dressed and complete with costume, Bedu towers to three metres. With Bedu are some of the drums that would have been played alongside the masquerade.

A large black and white photograph dramatically places Bedu in the context of a night masquerade.

Two small 'souvenir' Bedu masks can be 'tried on' by visitors; putting your face to the mask will activate the sound of Bedu songs.

The gallery explores performance as something that is transitory - but the objects that are left behind from performance are sometimes treasured and make their way into museum collections. The gallery looks at the experience of each performance from the perspective of the Spectator, Performer or Maker.

Bedu masquerade - Spectator

It is new year in Bondoukou. You are eight and afraid. The Bedu wild animal is in your village. You know it can kill.

They take you to Bedu. You must touch its face. But your fingers touch wood. Your tongue tastes cold paint. You see that Bedu is a mask, you know the man who wears it.

Bedu has been tamed.

You can keep a secret. From today, you have become part of the performance.

A boy is initiated in the presence of the miniature Bedu © Karel Arnaut 1994

Bedu masquerade - Performer

It is night. Bedu is here. For a time everybody becomes performer. The crowd surges and chants. There is drumming, clapping, dancing, laughter. At the fringes, the little steward Bedu keeps control.

The tone changes to drama. The crowd circles Bedu, singing songs of life's tragedies. We are reminded of our family values. Through Bedu, social order is renewed.

The masker removes his towering mask. For two hours he has danced Bedu to life.

Performer being transformed into Bedu © Karel Arnaut

Bedu masquerade - Maker

Legend has it that long ago a hunter saw wild Bedu dancing. Back in the village he imagined what it looked like and made its image in wood. Bedu has been danced in Bondoukou ever since.

As each new year approaches, the Bedu is renewed. In the bush, men carve and clothe it in beaten baobab bark.

In the village women tame Bedu with paint - red for the earth, white for God and the ancestors, and black for the spirits.

Koffi Djereba, Bedu sculptor of Tambi, Côte d'Ivoire © Karel Arnaut 1993