Improbable Chair by Galeries Lafayette Art Thinking

See this page in
French[FR]

 



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

Published Case Study

2003

LAPOULE, P.

Taillefine

2003, CCMP, Paris, France

Journal Article

2003

COLLA, E.

Tendances de la grande distribution en Europe : éléments pour un scénario 

REVUE FRANCAISE DU MARKETING, 2003, vol. 141, 1, pp. 49-60

Published Case Study

2003

ROUACH, D., P. SANTI

TGV in China

2003, Centrale de Cas et de Médias Pédagogiques, France

Chapter

2003

MIEMCZYK, J.

The 3DayCar: Implications for the green supply chain

in Towards an environment research agenda., International Centre for the Environment Ed., Macmillan, 2003

Journal Article

2003

NAWROT, W.

The Background for the Globalisation of Financial Markets

NASZ RYNEK KAPITALOWY, 2003, vol. 1

Journal Article

2003

CARBONE, V., A. D. MARTINO

The changing role of ports in supply chain management: an empirical analysis

MARITIME POLICY AND MANAGEMENT, October 2003, pp. pp 305-320 16 p

Journal Article

2003

SCHMID, S., A. SCHURIG

The Development of Critical Capabilities in Foreign Subsidiaries: Disentangling the Role of the Subsidiary's Business Network

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS REVIEW, 2003, vol. Vol. 12, No. 6, pp. pp. 755-782

Journal Article

2003

MERCADO, S.

The Impact of EU legislation on the marketing of goods and services in the European Union

ZAGREB INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF ECONOMICS & BUSINESS, 2003, vol. Vol. 6, no. N.1/2, pp. pp. 43-56 (14p.)

Conference Proceedings

2003

COLLA, E.

The outlook for European Retailing: competition and format evolution

in 12° EAERCD Conference on Research in Distributive Trades, ESCP-EAP, 2003, Paris, France

Paper presented in a Conference

2003

ARNAUD, G.

The power of money

in Proceedings ISPSO, 2003, Boston, United States