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

Journal Article

2003

BOUILLOUD, J.-P.

The reception of the Sokal affair in France - 'Pomo' Hunting or Intellectual McCarthyism?

PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES, March 2003, pp. pp 122-137 16 p

Journal Article

2003

CARDONE RIPORTELLA, C., M. J. ALVAREZ-GIL, N. LADO COUSTE, V. SASI

The Relative Effects of Client-Following and Market-Seeking Strategies it he Internationalisation Process of Financial-Service Companies

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, September 2003, pp. pp.384-394 11p.

Paper presented in a Conference

2003

MOTTIS, N., P. ZARLOWSKI

The rise of investor relations services in French listed companies

in Proceedings of the European Group For Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, 2003, Copenhagen

Chapter

2003

GETZ, I., A. S. GEORGSDOTTIR, T. I. LUBART

The role of flexibility in innovation

in The international handbook on innovation., SHAVININA L. V. (ed.), Elsevier, 2003

Paper presented in a Conference

2003

DABLEMONT, S., G. SIMON, A. LENDASSE, A. RUTTIENS, F. BLAYO, M. VERLEYSEN

Time series forecasting with SOM and local non-linear models : Application to the DAX30 index prediction

in Proceedings of the Conference WSOM (Workshop on Self- Organizing Maps), 2003, Kitakyushu

Chapter

2003

SAUSSOIS, J.-M.

Trois fresques sur la place de l'école dans l'économie en France

in L'Ecole : Horizon 2020., VANISCOTTE F., LADERRIERE P. (eds), L'Harmattan, 2003

Journal Article

2003

SCHMIDT, M., K. RUHNKE

Überlegungen zur Prüfung von beizulegenden Zeitwerten

WIRTSCHAFTSPRUFUNG (DIE), 2003, vol. 56, Issue 19, pp. 1037-1051 15 p.

Chapter

2003

KUPP, M.

Umweltmanagement als Kernkompetenz

in Quantitative Modelle und nachhaltige Ansätze der Unternehmungsführung: Günter Beuermann zum 65. Geburtstag., WAGNER, S., KUPP, M., MATZEL, M. (eds), Physica-Verlag, pp. pp. 77–89, 2003

Paper presented in a Conference

2003

PLIHON, V., C.-F. DUCATEAU

Un modèle de ressources pédagogiques pour la FOAD

in Procedings of Colloque Environnements informatiques pour l'apprentissage humain, 2003, Strasbourg, France

Paper presented in a Conference

2003

MICHON, C., S. CHANGEUR

Une étude des réactions des consommateurs face aux crises sur les marques

in Actes du Congrès Tendances du Marketing, 2003, Venise