Students of ArtEz visit 4Siblings in their garden in Nieuw-West (2024). Foto: © 4Siblings De Molentuin: Dreaming of a Garden on the 5th Floor
In March 2025, art collective 4Siblings started with the development of a co-creative process where ten local residents are being guided to develop a shared community garden in the new Garden Residencies: De Molentuin.
Werkplaats Molenwijk (2025). Foto: © Linus Louwes / Framer Framed
Molenwijk consists of 15 flats, each with its own balcony. Nobody has their own garden connected to their home in the neighbourhood. In response to residents’ wishes to have their own green space or kitchen garden to care for, Werkplaats Molenwijk created the Tuin residency. A residency that is in service of the local residents and their green, creative fingers.
4Siblings is a collective existing of Müge Yilmaz and Emiel Wolf, that does ‘eco-feministic’ research and creates land-based art projects, with de Tuinen van West as a base. From there, they build as gardeners on a (bio) diverse community, connected to a social way of gardening. They work with the traditional Milpa techniques, which is a way of planting where plants are planted together and mixed with others to improve each other. The crops are sharing the ground and helping each other grow. This philosophy is also the central theme in the process of Molenwijk: How can we as local residents grow a garden together, where the individual wishes as well as the collective dreams can flourish together?
Students of ArtEz visit 4Siblings in their garden in Nieuw-West (2024). Foto: © 4Siblings
In March 2025, the first workshop started, the local residents got to know each other, and as future gardeners, they thought of a design for their garden, which plants and flowers they would like to have and how to handle animals in the neighbourhood. Step by step, the garden was being created throughout these workshops. In March 2026, a year after the first workshop, the community programme Groen In De Buurt laid out the garden. The delay was caused by breeding birds that build their nest in the perches, which made it impossible to build there. The wait wasn’t a great problem; the same group was ready again to help lay the foundation of the garden in March.
Until the last frost has passed, gardeners can’t plant anything in the ground yet. That’s why 4Siblings organised a “Growing Seedlings” workshop, the last one held indoors. The gardening group could finally get their hands dirty, even if it was just in the small trays where the seeds would spend their first few weeks growing indoors.
By the end of April, the seedlings will be big enough to be planted outdoors, possibly as part of the official opening of the Molentuin on Sunday, May 3. On this day, the seedlings will be planted, and 4Siblings will organize the opening based on the Hidirellez celebration, a Turkish and partly Balkan spring festival. People celebrate the end of winter and the return of nature’s bloom; there is dancing, music, and food. People write their wishes on slips of paper, which they then bury under the rose bushes. On Sunday, May 3, Framer Framed will adopt elements of these rituals as the group celebrates the opening of the Molentuin.
Through this initiative, Framer Framed supports the democratization of public space, self-organization, collective decision-making, and the co-creative potential that already exists in the neighborhood. The community decides; the artists provide guidance. Local residents choose what kinds of vegetables, herbs, and flowers to grow, what materials to use for the planters, and how they want to make collective decisions and take care of the garden. Neighborhood residents curate their desired greenery and work in the open space among the trees. The project aims to promote biodiversity in the surrounding area, achieve the holistic (mental and physical) benefits of gardening, and explore the garden as a unifying intercultural fabric—where diverse stories of land, origin, heritage, and climate injustice can flourish.
Registration
Registration for the vegetable garden is full. You can still sign up for the waiting list by sending an email to werkplaats@framerframed.nl.
The workshops are reserved for local residents. Would you still like to come by to learn how to collectively design and create a community garden? Send an email to werkplaats@framerframed.nl
The opening of Framer Framed Noord was made possible by the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK), the City of Amsterdam / District North, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science. The BuurOven is made possible by: Bakkerij de Eenvoud, Framer Framed, Stichting SPIN, DOCK, OBA Molenwijk, and the dedication of local residents.
Framer Framed is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; Amsterdam Fund for the Arts; Municipality of Amsterdam; and VriendenLoterij Fonds.
Amsterdam Noord / Community & Learning / Molenwijk /
Agenda
Opening: community garden in The Molewijk quarter
As part of their garden residency, the artist collective 4Siblings organises the opening of the Molentuin as a Hıdırellez celebration
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