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 :
13042 publications

Journal Article

2019

MURAWSKI, M., T. THORDSEN, M. MARTENSEN, C. RADEMACHER, M. BICK

Structural Requirements for Digital Transformation – Insights from German Enterprises

LECTURE NOTES IN COMPUTER SCIENCE, 2019, vol. 11701

Journal Article

2019

THIBIERGE, C., L. MARCADE

Studying the Impact of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on Company Energy Valuation in Europe

BANQUE & STRATEGIE, 2019, vol. 13, no. ESCP Europe Applied Research Papers

Journal Article

2019

PINKSE, J., T. HAHN, F. FIGGE

Supersized Tensions and Slim Responses? The Discursive Construction of Strategic Tensions Around Social Issues

ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT DISCOVERIES, 2019, vol. 5(3), pp. 314-340

Research Monograph (Working papers)

2019

SCHMID, S., F. ROEDDER

Takata: International Configuration and Coordination of a Japanese Automotive Supplier

ESCP Europe Working Paper, no. No. 70, 2019

Journal Article

2019

DESLANDES, G., M. PAINTER-MORLAND, S. KIRK, C. TANSLEY

Talent Management: The Good, the Bad, and the Possible

EUROPEAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW, 2019, vol. 16 (1), pp. 135-146

Journal Article

2019

PINA, G.

Task scheduling and performance: Evidence from professional surf tournaments

JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC PSYCHOLOGY, 2019

Radio Talk

2019

LEON, E.

Télétravail, comment trouver le bon équilibre?

2019, 7 milliards de voisins, France

Radio Talk

2019

LEON, E.

Télétravail, espaces virtuels

2019, Xerfi canal, France

Journal Article

2019

BEYNEIX, I.

Temps de travail inhérent au mandat d'un salarié protégé : pas d'heures supplémentaires mais du temps de travail effectif..

GAZETTE DU PALAIS, 2019, vol. n°39, pp. p.14

Paper presented in a Conference

2019

DE GEUSER, F.

The Accountant is a Cyberpunk and the Controller a Cyborg! Using Science Fiction to Understand and Assess Digitalization Impacts on Accounting

in 2019 AAA Annual Meeting, 2019, San Francisco, United States