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

Paper presented in a Conference

1992

TISSIER-DESBORDES, E.

Product involvement for the producers

in Actes de la Conférence EMAC, 1992, France

Journal Article

1992

BON, J.

Promotion des ventes et services

BANQUE & STRATEGIE, May 1992, vol. n° 48, pp. pp. 11-14 4 p.

Research Monograph (Working papers)

1992

THOMAS, P., R. MAEDER

Qualité et publicité des comptes, impact sur les choix économiques. Le cas du crédit commercial inter-entreprises.

Cahiers de Recherche - Groupe HEC, 1992

Paper presented in a Conference

1992

GALAMBAUD, B.

Quel sens pour la fonction `Communication interne' au sein de l'entreprise

in Actes de la Journée d'études de l'Association Française de Communication interne (AFCI), 1992, France

Journal Article

1992

MORAND, P.

Quelques réflexions sur l'économie du luxe

Forthcoming REVUE MENSUELLE DE L'ENA

Chapter

1992

COLLA, E.

Relaciones entre fabricantes y distribudores en el sector juguetero de Italia : un escenario

in La distribucion comercial en el 2000 ., Paloma Taltavull Ed., Generalitat Valenciana, pp. 41-55, 1992

Textbook

1992

DELVAILLE, P., C. MAILLET, H. STOLOWY, A. MIKOL

Révision, évaluation et contrôle interne.

1992, Entrainement à, Paris, France

Published Case Study

1992

TISSIER-DESBORDES, E., A. BONNEFONT

Safrane

1992, Centrale de Cas et de Médias Pédagogiques, France

Research Monograph (Working papers)

1992

GUPTA, J., P. SPIESER

Some properties of finite state market chains useful in discrete time models valuations

Cahier de Recherche, no. 107, 1992

Journal Article

1992

BOUILLOUD, J.-P.

Stratégie et société : le rôle du contexte social dans le choix des options stratégiques. Proposition pour une logique conditionnelle

Forthcoming INTERCULTURES