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

Research Monograph (Working papers)

2003

ROLLE, G.

Il coordinamento della tassazione dei redditi d’impresa nell’Unione Europea, Working Paper

Centro Studi Confindustria, 2003

Review of a book; an article; a research

2003

LAROCHE, H.

Il est trop tard...

2003, GERER ET COMPRENDRE

Paper presented in a Conference

2003

TAFUR, J.

Improving procurement processes management through differentiation of purchasing and supplying

in Proceedings of the Cibernos Forum, 2003, Madrid

Paper presented in a Conference

2003

BADOT, O.

Influence of the Internet on the dealer's attitudes

in Proceedings of the Car Internet Research Program IV, 2003, Ottawa

Paper presented in a Conference

2003

HOSSFELD, C., L. KLEE

Informations financières sur la performance des entreprises allemandes et françaises

in Actes du 24e Congrès de l'Association Française de Comptabilité, 2003, Louvain-la-Neuve

Journal Article

2003

GETZ, I.

Innovate or Die: Is That a Fact?

CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, September 2003, pp. pp 130-136 7 p

Published Case Study

2003

DURISIN, B., G. CALABRETTA

Innovazione e Approcio al Mercato

2003, SDA Bocconi School of Management Note, Milano, Italy

Journal Article

2003

COLLA, E.

International expansion and strategies of discount grocery retailers: the winning models

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RETAIL AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT, 2003, vol. 31, 1, pp. 55-66

Chapter

2003

DÍAZ, C.

International monetary policy coordination under symmetric shocks: Would cooperation be desirable?

in Macroeconomic Policy in an Open Economy: Applications of the Mundell-Fleming Model., Oscar Bajo-Rubio Ed., Nova Science, pp. 83-102, 2003

Paper presented in a Conference

2003

MIKOL, A., I. D. BEELDE, N. GONTHIER-BESACIER

Internationalising the French auditing profession

in Proceedings of the 26th Annual Congress of the European Accounting Association, 2003, Sevilla