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

Conference Proceedings

2014

COLLA, E., C. CHASTENET DE GÉRY

Innovations et évolution des emplois et des métiers commerciaux dans la grande distribution en France. Rétrospective et prospectives.

in International Marketing Trends Congress, ESCP Europe, 2014, Venise, Italy

Journal Article

2014

BERTOLDI, B.

Innovativeness of Ceretto Aziende Vitivinicole: A First Investigation into a Wine Company

INTERNATIONAL FOOD AND AGRIBUSINESS MANAGEMENT REVIEW, 2014

Journal Article

2014

ORDIERES, J., J. ALFONSO-CENDÓN, M. CASTEJÓN LIMAS, J. PAVÓN

Insights into the prevalence of software project defects

THE SCIENTIFIC WORLD JOURNAL, 2014, vol. 2014:5

Book

2014

BEN ABDELKADER, F., D. LABARONNE

Institutions de gouvernance, confiance et développement dans les pays arabes

L'Harmattan, 2014

Paper presented in a Conference

2014

SECINARO, S.

Intangible assets in public local sector: the case of Torino municipality

in Interdisciplinary workshop on intangibles, intellectual capital and financial information, 2014, Ferrara, Italy

Paper presented in a Conference

2014

SCHMID, S., F. ALTFELD, T. DAUTH

International Attention of Top Managers

in 5th Workshop on Top Management Teams and Business Strategy, 2014, Valencia, Spain

Paper presented in a Conference

2014

SCHWORM, S., L. CADIN, V. CARBONE, M. FESTING, E. LEON, M. MURATBEKOVA-TOURON

International Business Education and International Experience as Determinants of Subjective Career Success of International Managers- Theoretical Framework and Empirical Results

in Proceedings of the 13th International Human Resource Management Conference "Uncertainty in a Flattening World: Challenges for IHRM", 2014, Cracow, Poland

Paper presented in a Conference

2014

MERCADO, S., M.-J. ALBERT-BATT, M. FALKENSTEIN

Internationalisation Through International Networks

in 26th Annual EAIE Conference, 2014, Prague, Czech Republic

Debate; Point of view; Editorial,…

2014

VOYER, B., G.

Interview for Bloomberg Business Week On the consumption of premium alcohol at home

2014, BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK

Debate; Point of view; Editorial,…

2014

VOYER, B., G.

Interview for The Daily Mail Online: Fancy seeing you here! Meeting work colleagues on holidays

2014, DAILY MAIL