Star date: 5th December 2014

OPINION SPLIT ON USING ENGELS' BEARD AS CLIMBING WALL

"To reduce Engels to a facial feature upon which people can then climb is a huge insult..."

Arts production company Engine is currently working on `re-purposing' Friedrich Engels' beard as a full sized climbing wall, in a commission for the University of Salford's new art school.

Engels, the world famous philosopher and revolutionary who worked at his father's mill in Salford in the mid 1800s, never actually had a full beard during his time in the city. The Engels' Beard climbing wall has split opinion, with it being called both a `huge insult' and `imaginative and a little bit hilarious'...

Full details here...

"We propose...to repurpose the beard, creating a dramatic climbing wall with viewing tower for people of all ages to enjoy..." Engine

Nope, this is not a warped April Fool's joke. Engine Arts Production Company, based in Greengate, is currently working on producing a full sized climbing wall, in the shape of Friedrich Engels' beard.

Engels in the most famous person ever to live or work in Salford, inspiring countless revolutions across the world, thanks to pamphlets like The Communist Manifesto and books like Das Kapital, written with Karl Marx. Engels also wrote The Condition of the Working Class in England, commentating on the shocking way people were forced to live in Manchester and Salford during Queen Victoria's reign.

Engels stressed that he didn't want any statues of himself after he died and he doesn't even have a grave, his ashes scattered at sea. It didn't stop Russia and other communist countries shoving up statues of him everywhere, while putting him on coins and stamps and huge billboards.

He was usually shown with a long black beard to induce reverence but when in Salford and Manchester photos show him only with a sharp moustache and goatie. A fact kind of overlooked by the Engels' Beard creators, along with the fact that Engels didn't want any statues of himself.

On their website, the Engine artists state..."As artists concerned with the playful politics of social engagement and with creating intriguing public spaces, it was never going to be enough just to make a boring statue (even if it does have an interesting story and provide a sideways comment on how municipal local politics relate to shifts in our relationship to socialism).

"So the artwork has become focused on Engels' signature magnificent beard as a symbol of wisdom and learning" they explain "And we propose, in the language of regeneration and planning, to repurpose the beard, creating a dramatic climbing wall with viewing tower for people of all ages to enjoy."

This morning in Salford, opinion was split on the project. Lecturer and journalist, Rachel Broady, who was having a twitter row with Engine's Jai Redman, about the Beard, told the Salford Star...

"Engels wouldn't have wanted a statue. He had no interest in pompous celebrations of his existence. His contribution is in his writings - and his gripping descriptions of Manchester which, to this day, give us an insight into how the working class, and our Irish ancestors, were forced to live. To reduce Engels to a facial feature upon which people can then climb is a huge insult.

"At a time when we're returning to Victorian levels of austerity, when workers are facing poverty, unemployment, a lack of housing, shoddy housing ... we shouldn't be taking someone like Engels and reducing him to a comedy caricature, focusing no doubt ironically, on his hipster beard so local children can climb it" she added

"A University funding this ultimately politically-illiterate approach to history is also a huge insult - the money would be better spent providing copies of The Condition of the Working Class in England to schools and colleges" she explained "I'm stunned this juvenile idea ever got past the `brainstorming' session: it has all the intelligence and subtlety of making a seesaw shaped like Marx's bum boils - and to see it erected would be just as painful."

Meanwhile, DJ and social commenter, Dave Haslam, whose book Manchester, England, recounted the idea of erecting a statue of Engels in the Nineties, and inspired the new installation, wasn't too upset about the Engels' Beard climbing wall.

"I think it's quite imaginative and a little bit hilarious" he said "It's not really an insult – I think there's a bit of an artistic thing going on there and I don't think it's disrespectful. The more Engels we all have in our lives the better. I'd like shopping centres to be re-branded with his name, and churches to be re-named after Engels...and an Engels quarter...I think it's fine.

"Beards are so contemporary, it re-establishes those links between where we are now and the Victorian radical revolutionary that we know and love" he added "I'm looking forward to the unveiling. There is a need for an Engels statue and it's manifested in an odd and slightly bizarre way now. I hope this is the beginning, I want to see his other body parts strewn all over Manchester and Salford."

The only other monument to Friedrich Engels in Salford is the Engels House towerblock in Eccles, his original mill in Weaste bulldozed for the M602. There is also an Engels archive in the Working Class Movement Library collected by Ruth and Eddie Frow, and Salford Star's parent company, Mary Burns is named after Engels' partner.

But now, a towerblock and a climbing beard will all that will be physically left of Engels in Salford. A fitting tribute?

The Salford Star asked the Engine artists for a comment but they didn't respond.

• For a full background of Fred Engels in Salford and his legacy see the Salford Star special series of six features – click here and follow the links...

UPDATE: 23rd September 2016 - Engels Beard Unveiled  - and slammed as `cynical hipster joke' - click here