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

FORTERRE, D., L. TOURNOIS

Turning compliance into a Competitive Advantage

in Multinational Enterprise and Sustainable Development: Strategic Tool for Competiveness, 2006, Atlanta, United States

Journal Article

2006

COLLA, E.

Una concorrenza distorta: divieto della vendita sottocosto, “marges arrière” e prezzi nella grande distribuzione francese

MERCATI E & COMPETITIVITA, 2006, vol. 2, pp. 131-158

Paper presented in a Conference

2006

CALABRETTA, G., B. DURISIN

Understanding Firm Innovativeness: An Empirical Study of the Factors Affecting the Propensity and the Capability to Develop New Products

in « Creating and Appropriating Value in Innovation Management », Proceedings of the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) Research Forum, 2006, Atlanta, United States

Journal Article

2006

BRY, F. D., G. GALINDO

Une lecture croisée des théories du contrat psychologique et des parties prenantes

REVUE DE L'ORGANISATION RESPONSABLE, 2006, vol. n° 2, pp. 34 p.

Paper presented in a Conference

2006

HEILBRUNN, B.

Une marque est sans idée ou l'impensé du marketing

in Proceedings of the 5th International Congress "Marketing Trends", 2006, Venice

Chapter

2006

HEILBRUNN, B.

Une marque est sans idée... ou l'impensé du marketing

in Marketing en questions ?., GRASSE M. C. (ed.), Edisud, pp. pp 93-106 14 p, 2006

Chapter

2006

BOUCHY, F.

Une odeur de moisi pas si désagréable” : l’usé, le suranné et la nostalgie dans l’œuvre de Jean Echenoz

in Modernités du suranné., Valéry Hugotte, Jean-Christophe Valtat Eds, Presses Universitaires Blaise Pascal, pp. 137-147, 2006

Journal Article

2006

FERNÁNDEZ DE CORDOBA, G.

Union Games: Technological Unemployment

ECONOMIC THEORY, 2006

Contribution on blogs and Social Networks

2006

NEALE, P., C. BOYCE

Using Mystery Clients: A Guide to Using Mystery Clients for Evaluation Input

2006, Pathfinder

Paper presented in a Conference

2006

MORENO, E.

Using Quality Loss Function for Preliminary Selection of a Roller Bearing at Early Design Stages

in Procedings of 5th International Conference on Advanced Engineering Design, 2006, Pague, Czech Republic