From unity to Dispersion
In linguistics, a trinomial of the form X, Y, and Z (also called a tricolon or tripartite expression) is a set phrase composed of three coordinated elements, usually joined by "and" or "or," which are similar in structure, meaning, or rhythm. A trinomial (in linguistic terms) is a fixed or semi-fixed expression consisting of three parallel or semantically related words or phrases, often used together to emphasize, create rhythm, or achieve a stylistic effect.
We propose a series of four prototypes developed within the context of the Unidentified Video Observatory or in its immediate vicinity. These materialize as four publications on this website and four sessions at the Santa Mònica in Barcelona.
The series is structured around four derivations based on videographic materials preserved in the Archive 94-20, in dialogue with short-duration modules specially produced to facilitate interpretation. This proposal is centered on feedback with the Observatory’s past contexts—a practice that the project periodically reactivates as an exercise in reflection and continuity.
Each module in the cycle, Trinomials of Form, proposes a dialogue between two historical pieces from the Archive 94-20 and a contemporary short piece produced by the Observatory. This triple relationship functions as a node of recontextualization and reconsideration: it seeks to recover meanings preserved in one of the project’s archives, bring them into play from the present and open up new interpretations, while also stimulating the Observatory’s current production and reinforcing its dimension as an authorial project.
Trinomials of Form focuses on specific—perhaps illusory, perhaps disorienting—aspects of our present. In a drift of uncertainties, the reflections of the common and memory as recollection become blurred. When visions open up, confession turns into ritual, and the archive that contains them collapses into a mere memory; then the experience becomes an endless loop.
This four-session cycle reveals an unexpected map, tracing a reading from unity to dispersion, and from the visible to the invisible. Forms of emptiness within apparent absurdities: a breath that concentrates, unfolds, and dissolves bubbles in the air. Suspended in their reflections of sunlight, they induce thought and, once again, shape a passage that exists only in moments of veiled reality.
