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 :
13036 publications

Contribution on blogs and Social Networks

2023

BENYAYER, L. -D.

Even when algorithms outperform humans, humans can still make the difference

2023, The Choice

Journal Article

2023

SAVIN, I.

Evolution and recombination of topics in Technological Forecasting and Social Change

TECHNOLOGICAL FORECASTING AND SOCIAL CHANGES, 2023, vol. 194

Journal Article

2023

REICHE, S., M. DIMITROVA, M. WESTMAN, S. CHEN, O. WURTZ, M. LAZAROVA, M. SHAFFER

Expatriate Work Role Engagement and the Work-Family Interface: A Conditional Crossover and Spillover Perspective

HUMAN RELATIONS, 2023, vol. 76 (3), pp. 452–482

Journal Article

2023

MINBAEVA, D., A. LEDENEVA, M. MURATBEKOVA-TOURON, S. HORAK

Explaining the Persistence of Informal Institutions: The Role of Informal Networks

ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT REVIEW (THE), 2023, vol. 48 (3), pp. 556–574

Paper presented in a Conference

2023

GERGES-YAMMINE, R., A. TER WAL, N. MALHOTRA

Exploring the work of networking: How unembedded entrepreneurs navigate networking arenas to make it to circles that matter

in Symposium: The Micro Dynamics of Social Network: Formation, Evolution, and Consequences, 2023, Boston, United States

TV Appearance

2023

BOUILLOUD, J. -P.

Faire un beau travail : une revendication sociale

Xerfi canal, 2023

Contribution on blogs and Social Networks

2023

SECKLER, C.

Fehler-Management-Kultur: der Schlüssel zum Erfolg

2023, IDW Life

Studies and Reports commissioned by Companies and Research Agencies

2023

TAAPKEN, N., C. SECKLER, S. FISCHER

Fehlerkultur Report 2023: So steht es um die Fehlerkultur in deutschen Unternehmen

2023

Journal Article

2023

GHIAIE, H.

Financial or non-financial shocks: rivals that play together

MACROECONOMIC DYNAMICS, 2023, vol. 27 (7), pp. 1972-1995

Journal Article

2023

GERGES-YAMMINE, R., A. TER WAL

Firm exit from open multiparty alliances: The role of social influence, uncertainty, and interfirm imitation in collective technology development.

RESEARCH POLICY, 2023, vol. 52 (4), pp. 104705