The fragmentation of quasi-projectiles from the nuclear reaction 40 Ca+ 12 C at 25 MeV/nucleon was used to produce excited states candidates to α-particle condensation. Complete kinematic characterization of individual decay events, made possible by the CHIMERA highgranularity 4π charged particle multi-detector, reveals that 7.5±4.0 % of the Hoyle state particle decays correspond to direct decays in three equal-energy α-particles. Moreover, events with increased kinetic energy dispersion in the

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... 12 C center of mass, which amount to 9.5±4.0 %, point toward the occurrence of a second competing molecular configuration, of a linear α-chain.