Performance Gallery was developed at Brighton Museum 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 plankmasks on open display. Dressed and complete with costume, Bedu towers to three metres. With Bedu are some of the drums that would have performed 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.

	Bedu in Performance Gallery

The Performance 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.

Find out more about Performance Gallery

Bedu masquerade - SPECTATOR

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

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.

Bedu masquerade - PERFORMER

	Performer being transformed into Bedu ©Karel Arnaut

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.

Bedu masquerade - MAKER

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

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.