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

Guest Speaker in a Conference

1998

COMBE, N.

Le personnage de la vieille servante dans la Belle du Seigneur d'Albert Cohen

1998, Université de Picardie-Jules Verne

PhD Dissertation

1998

COLLIN, B.

Le Processus d'internationalisation et la logique des Mondes

1998, Université Paris 12 - Val de Marne, France

Chapter

1998

ROUACH, D.

Le Rôle de l'Armée dans le Développement des cadres à potentiel en Israël

in Préparer les dirigeants de demain., BOURNOIS F., ROUSSILLON S. (eds), Editions d'Organisation, 1998

Chapter

1998

GETZ, I., T. I. LUBART

Le rôle de l'émotion dans la transformation créative de soi

in Action, affects et transformation de soi., BARBIER J-M., GALATANU O. (eds), PUF, 1998

Journal Article

1998

DESLANDES, G.

Le virtuel

VOIX DU REGARD (LA), March 1998, vol. n° 10, pp. pp. 8-12 5 p.

Paper presented in a Conference

1998

CHEVALIER, A.

Les aspects multicritères de l'histoire du risque pays au 20ème siècle

in Actes des 47es Journées du Groupe Européen Multicritères d'Aide à la Décision, 1998, Salonique

Paper presented in a Conference

1998

CHANGEUR, S., F. DANO

Les associations valorisées par les consommateurs : une approche perceptuelle du capital-marque

in Actes du 14ème Congrès de l'Association Française du Marketing, 1998, Bordeaux, France

Journal Article

1998

BESCOS, P.-L., C. MENDOZA

Les besoins d'information des managers sont-ils satisfaits ?

REVUE FRANCAISE DE GESTION, November 1998, pp. pp 117-128 12 p

Paper presented in a Conference

1998

GALAMBAUD, B.

Les cadres en France : une rencontre entre le développement du salariat et l'histoire politique et sociale nationale

in Actes du Colloque de l'IAE, 1998, Strasbourg, France

Journal Article

1998

TISSIER-DESBORDES, E.

Les études qualitatives dans un monde postmoderne

REVUE FRANCAISE DU MARKETING, 1998, vol. n°168-169, pp. pp 39-49 11 p