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)

1994

GUPTA, J., P. GOUGEON

Environmental issues : a financial approach

Document de travail, no. n°94-128, 1994

Journal Article

1994

PINOT DE VILLECHENON, F.

Ermoldus Nigellus

DICTIONNAIRE UNIVERSEL DES LITTERATURES, 1994, no. Dictionnaire universel des Litté

Paper presented in a Conference

1994

FESTING, M., W. WEBER

Essentials and Limits for International Human Resource Management Practices

in Proceedings of the 4th Conference on International Human Resource Management, 1994, Brisbane

Paper presented in a Conference

1994

FRERY, F.

Et si l'entreprise n'était qu'un épisode de l'histoire ?

in Annales du management, Actes des 12es Journées Nationales des IAE, FNEGE, 1994, Montpellier, France

PhD Dissertation

1994

DESLANDES, G.

Formation et information sur les supports magazines : le cas Bayard-Presse

1994, ESCP Europe, Paris, France

Paper presented in a Conference

1994

ROUACH, D.

Global trends in Technology Transfer

in Proceedings of the `Technology transfer practice in Europe - Experience of the last ten years and developments to the year 2000' Conference,TIL and Sprint Programme, 1994, France

Paper presented in a Conference

1994

DELVAILLE, P., S. ARCHER, S. MCLEAY

Harmonisation and the Comparability of Financial Statement Items in the Annual Accounts of European Multilisted Companies

in Proceedings of the 17th Annual Congress of the European Accounting Association, 1994, Venice

Chapter

1994

SAUSSOIS, J.-M.

Henri Fayol ou l'invention du directeur général salarié

in L'invention de la gestion, histoire et pratique., BOUILLOUD J.-P., LECUYER B.-P. (eds), L'Harmattan, pp. pp. 45-51 6 p., 1994

Paper presented in a Conference

1994

MIKOL, A.

Hiérarchie des sources de droit en comptabilité

in Actes de la Commission des Études Comptables de la CNCC, 1994, Paris, France

Journal Article

1994

BOURGOIS, J. F., F. JALLAT

Histoire d'une innovation de service réussie : le lancement de Formule 1

DM - DECISIONS MARKETING, May 1994, pp. pp - 6 p