Improbable Chair by Galeries Lafayette Art Thinking

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The Improbable Chair by Galeries Lafayette is all about bringing together artists and entrepreneurs, linking art with business in a new way.

It supports creative practices by connecting artists with entrepreneurs, businesses with cultural institutions, and artistic creation with business strategy. It encourages everyone to embrace the "improbable" to think like creators. Through a unique method called "Art Thinking," developed at ESCP, the Galeries Lafayette group and ESCP offer a way to support, encourage, and spread the act of creation.

 

Guillaume Houzé, Brand and Communications Director, Galeries Lafayette

A few words from
Guillaume Houzé
Brand and Communications Director, Galeries Lafayette group

“The Improbable Chair is all about bringing together artists and entrepreneurs, linking art with business in a new way. It supports creative practices by connecting artists with entrepreneurs, businesses with cultural institutions, and artistic creation with business strategy. It encourages everyone to embrace the ‘improbable’ to think like creators. Through a unique method called ‘Art Thinking’, developed at ESCP, the Galeries Lafayette group and ESCP offer a way to support, encourage, and spread the act of creation.”

Guillaume Houzé, Brand and Communications Director, Galeries Lafayette group Photo Credit: ©Lucasziwel

Sylvain Bureau, Scientific Director

A few words from
Sylvain Bureau
Professor at ESCP Business School
Scientific Director of the Improbable Chair

“Our initial belief was simple: to make creation accessible to as many people as possible. To achieve this, we developed a method called Art Thinking, which characterises how artists, entrepreneurs, and scientists go through similar steps in the creative process, such as gift-giving, deviating, destroying and drifting. For 15 years, our Art-Thinking seminars have trained thousands of students, entrepreneurs, managers, and researchers across a dozen countries and twenty universities and schools. Partnering with Galeries Lafayette group, a company with a strong entrepreneurial DNA, our chair combines theory and practice to amplify this approach and promote creators and creation in the broadest sense.”

Professor Sylvain Bureau, Scientific Director of the Improbable Chair

Objectives

The Chair has two major complementary goals:

  • Support scientific research to better understand creative practices
  • Teach the Art Thinking method and spread the Improbable pedagogy worldwide

Art Thinking not only helps participants unleash their innate creative potential; it also promotes collaboration, listening, leadership, negotiation, and constructive dialogue. Participants learn to question themselves, leverage failure, establish partnerships, and develop an agile approach to uncertainty.

Three areas of activity

Research and development

  • Scientific publications
  • Doctoral theses and final dissertations
  • Improbable Siesta: seminar bringing together researchers, artists, and experts in creation
Teaching

  • Spreading the Improbable method at ESCP and beyond
  • Designing initial training in Art Thinking
  • Training Art Thinking instructors
Events

  • Conferences and workshops on Art Thinking
  • Exhibitions and Improbable openings
  • Improbable residencies (art­ist/sci­en­tist/­en­tre­pre­neur triads)

“This Chair is the story of an encounter between visionary creators who understood early on how future generations of students and entrepreneurs would need artistic and creative practices to prepare for the world of tomorrow. Through this collaboration, ESCP is grateful to the Galeries Lafayette group for opening up new playgrounds for unprecedented and improbable creations!”

Pascale Pernet, Director of chairs and corporate sponsorship
ppernet@escp.eu

Focus on...

Group photo at the inauguration of the Improbable chair

Article

When Art meets Entrepreneurship

On Tuesday, 19th March 2024, Léon Laulusa, Dean and Executive President of ESCP, Jean-Stéphane Arcis, President of the ESCP Foundation, Philippe Houzé, Chairman of the Management Board of the Galeries Lafayette group, and Guillaume Houzé, Brand and Communications Director, Galeries Lafayette group, signed the first Chair dedicated to artistic and entrepreneurial creation.

Display :
13052 publications

Paper presented in a Conference

2006

GEUSER, F. D., D. OYON, K. D. MAEYER

Linking the quality of management control systems to their users' competencies: an empirical study

in Proceedings of the American Accounting Association Annual Meeting, 2006, Washington

Journal Article

2006

ANCARANI, F., F. JACOB, F. JALLAT

Livello e dispersione dei prezzi nella competizione online : Un confronto tra differenti tipologie di retailer in differenti paesi europei

MERCATI E & COMPETITIVITA, 2006, vol. 2, pp. 37-60

Paper presented in a Conference

2006

DAMBRIN, C., K. D. VALCK

Look who's talking! Technology-Supported Impression Formation in Virtual Communities

in Proceedings of the 2006 North American Association for Consumer Research (ACR) Conference, 2006, Orlando, United States

Conference Proceedings

2006

AZHAR ARNAL, J., J. P. GALAVIELLE

L’éthique économique entre Droit et Régulation Sociale

in Procedings of XXXVI eme Journées de l’Association d’Economie Sociale - Economie sociale et droit, Journées de l'Association d'Economie Sociale - Economie sociale et droit, 2006, Nancy, France

Journal Article

2006

BEYNEIX, I.

L’unification prétorienne du vice de violence économique en droit privé

PETITES AFFICHES, 2006, vol. n° 170, pp. p. 3

Paper presented in a Conference

2006

PINOT DE VILLECHENON, F.

Macrodiplomacia y microdiplomacia en las relaciones internacionales contemporáneas: la interpenetración de las fronteras

in XX Congreso anual de la Asociación Mexicana de Estudios Internacionales sobre « Las fronteras de la globalización», 2006, Monterrey, Mexico

Paper presented in a Conference

2006

BOURGUIGNON, A., O. SAULPIC, P. ZARLOWSKI

Management Accounting change in the French public sector: A New-Institutionalist perspective

in Actes du 27e Congrès de l'AFC, Comptabilité, Contrôle, Audit et Institution(s), 2006, Tunis

Research Monograph (Working papers)

2006

BOURGUIGNON, A., O. SAULPIC, P. ZARLOWSKI

Management accounting change in the public sector

Document de recherche - ESSEC, no. décembre, 2006

Paper presented in a Conference

2006

BOURGUIGNON, A., O. SAULPIC, P. ZARLOWSKI

Management Accounting Change in the Public Sector: A French Case Study and a New Institutionalist Perspective

in Proceedings of the 29th Annual Congress, European Accounting Association (EAA), 2006, Dublin

Journal Article

2006

BICK, M., J. M. PAWLOWSKI

Managing & re-using didactical expertise: The Didactical Object Model

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY, 2006, pp. pp 84-96 13 p