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 :
13041 publications

Chapter

2018

GABILLIET, P.

Intelligence stratégique ou intelligence du futur ?

in Les intelligences multiples en entreprise., Raphaëlle Laubie Ed., Dunod, pp. 57-60, 2018

Published Case Study

2018

LAPOULE, P.

Intermarché, Expansion de los expendios con ventanilla de servicio en el auto en el sector de venta detallista de abarrotes de Francia

2018, CCMP, Paris, France

Published Case Study

2018

LAPOULE, P.

Intermarché.com : L'essor du drive alimentaire en France

2018, CCMP

Published Case Study

2018

LAPOULE, P.

Intermarché.com : The expansion of drive-through outlets in the French retail grocery sector

2018, CCMP

Journal Article

2018

FOUQUAU, J., C. KHAROUBI, P. SPIESER

International and temporal diversifications: the best of both worlds?

JOURNAL OF RISK, 2018, vol. Vol 20 N°4, pp. 27-54

Paper presented in a Conference

2018

SCHMID, S., S. MITTERREITER

International Top Managers and their Board Tenure

in 44th EIBA Annual Conference 2018, 2018, Poznan, Poland

Journal Article

2018

SCHMID, S., F. ALTFELD

International Work Experience and Compensation: Is More Always Better for CFOs?

EUROPEAN MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, 2018, vol. Vol. 36., Issue 4, pp. 530-543

Chapter

2018

SCHMID, S.

Internationalisation Strategies and Processes of the German Mittelstand

in Key Success Factors of SME Internationalisation: A Cross-Country Perspective., Dominguez, N. and Mayrhofer, U. (Eds.) Eds, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp. pp. 137-154, 2018

Edited Book / Textbook

2018

SCHMID, S.

Internationalization of Business: Cases on Strategy Formulation and Implementation

Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2018

Journal Article

2018

THIBAUD, M., H. CHI, W. ZHOU, S. PIRAMUTHU

Internet of Things (IoT) in high-risk Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) industries: A comprehensive review

DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS, 2018, vol. Vol. 108, pp. pp. 79-95