This is one of a series of four statues in Park Koliště, Brno by ceramicist, costume designer, and Brno-native Tamara Divišková. Two of the statues, including this one, “The Queen of the Night”, represent characters from Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute; the remaining two are a bird feeder and bird bath. The statues date from approximately 2002.
The statues are made from glazed ceramic fired in a ceramic water pipe factory in Poštorná, with a polystyrene foam core adding durability. Still, the statues are targeted by vandals. Ms Divišková passed away just last month, in September 2026, but during her lifetime she was known to clean the statues herself.
Knowing the research behind this post, they make perfect sense, but in situ they read as fantastical, almost fairy-tale objects. Beyond the obvious bird feeder and bird bath, all of them feel made with birds in mind. The Queen of the Night was even meant to have flowers growing from her head. That suits their setting in a park, and the artist herself is known to have topped up the feeder with birdseed.
One more fun fact: her father was an early Czech racing driver Karel Divíšek.
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