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.
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
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
- Scientific publications
- Doctoral theses and final dissertations
- Improbable Siesta: seminar bringing together researchers, artists, and experts in creation
- Spreading the Improbable method at ESCP and beyond
- Designing initial training in Art Thinking
- Training Art Thinking instructors
- 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...

Article
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.
Paper presented in a Conference
2003
Du 'haut potentiel 'au dirigeant : un jeu entre hypermodernité et tradition
in Actes du Colloque L'Individu Hypermoderne, ESCP-EAP, 2003, Paris, France
Chapter
2003
Du désastre au renouveau
in Pour comprendre la crise argentine., ROLLAND D., CHASSIN J. (eds), L'Harmattan, pp. pp. 213-220 8 p., 2003
PhD Dissertation
2003
Du morcellement de l'espace de recherche en planification d'actions
2003, SUPAERO, Toulouse, France
Paper presented in a Conference
2003
Effet d'illusion et biais de jugement liés au prix : Application au cas du changement d'unité monétaire des francs aux euros
in Actes du 19ème Congrès International de l'Association Française du Marketing (AFM), 2003, Tunis
Published Case Study
2003
Electronics Innovation (I)
2003, SDA Bocconi School of Management Case, Milano, Italy
Published Case Study
2003
Electronics Innovation (II)
2003, SDA Bocconi School of Management Case, Milano, Italy
Published Case Study
2003
Electronics Innovation (TN)
2003, SDA Bocconi School of Management Teaching Note, Milano, Italy
Conference Proceedings
2003
Encounters between non-elite Whites and Mexicans in Texas (1820-1845)
in Procedings of Regards inter-ethniques: Variations sur la question de l’Autre en Amérique du Nord, Centre de recherches Suds d'Amériques, 2003, France
Journal Article
2003
Enjeux et Modalités de la relation consommateur-marque
REVUE FRANCAISE DE GESTION, July 2003, pp. pp 131-144 14 p
Paper presented in a Conference
2003
Entrepreneurial Motivation for Customer Relationships
in Proceedings of the 7th International Research Conference on Customer Relationship Marketing Management, 2003, Berlin