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

SCHMID, S., C. POLAT

Lenovo: From Chinese Origins to a Global Player

in Strategies of Internationalization: Cases on Strategy Formulation and Implementation., Schmid, S. (Ed.), Springer International Publishing, pp. pp. 125-154, 2018

Chapter

2018

GABILLIET, P.

Les 1001 odeurs du pouvoir

in Les 7 sens ou l'essence de l'entreprise., Raphaelle Laubie / Véronique Morali Ed., L'archipel, 2018

Review of a book; an article; a research

2018

BOUDES, T.

Les agencements marchands comme clefs de voûte des marchés

2018, GERER ET COMPRENDRE, France

Journal Article

2018

ROUQUET, A., C. ROUSSAT, V. CARBONE

Les consumer-to-consumer supply chains

REVUE FRANCAISE DE GESTION, 2018, vol. n° 277, pp. 93-107

Journal Article

2018

O'SHEA, N., D. MICHEL

Les Coopératives d’Activités et d’Emploi, laboratoires de l’avenir du travail ?

ENTREPRENDRE ET INNOVER, 2018, vol. n° 37, pp. 55-67

Journal Article

2018

FARAH, L.

Les dispositifs institutionnels de mise à l’étude dans les classes préparatoires aux écoles de commerce

EDUCATION & DIDACTIQUE, 2018, vol. 12(3), pp. 9-23

Journal Article

2018

CHEKROUN, D., C. CAMUS, P. -H. PETIT

Les entreprises au regard du réglement general sur la protection des données: quelles réformes à adopter? = Companies and general data protection regulation: whet reforms are needed?

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS LAW JOURNAL, 2018, vol. 2018 Issue 2, pp. pp. 125-141

TV Appearance

2018

DESLANDES, G.

Les entreprises humanistes : conjuguer métier et passion

Xerfi canal, 2018

Journal Article

2018

TEGLBORG, A. -C., A. GLASER

Les événements collaboratifs, vecteurs de l'innovation participative dans trois grandes entreprises

ENTREPRENDRE ET INNOVER, 2018, vol. n°38, no. Regards croisés sur les événements collaboratifs d’innovation, pp. 9-16

Journal Article

2018

LEMMET, L.

Les MARD, vers un changement de paradigme? De quelques réflexions autour de la médiation et de la conciliation

RTDCOM - REVUE TRIMESTRIELLE DE DROIT COMMERCIAL ET DE DROIT ECONOMIQUE, 2018, vol. octobre-décembre 2018, pp. pp 889-905