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

2014

MENDOZA, C., P. LANGEVIN

The impact of results control on affective organizational commitment: the mediating effects of perceived procedural justice

COMPTABILITE CONTROLE AUDIT, 2014, vol. 20 (1), pp. pp. 13-42

Journal Article

2014

MAIER, E., R. WILKEN

The Impact of Stress on Consumers' Willingness to Pay

PSYCHOLOGY AND MARKETING, September 2014, vol. 31/9, pp. 774-785

Conference Proceedings

2014

COLLA, E., P. LAPOULE

The impact of the digital approach on the sales forces management

in Colloquium on European Research in Retailing, European Research in Retailing, 2014, Brême, Germany

Paper presented in a Conference

2014

WILKEN, R., T. AYKAÇ

The influence of negotiators’ individualism on disaggregated outcomes in multi-issue business negotiations

in Proceedings of the 43rd EMAC Conference, 2014, Valence, Spain

Journal Article

2014

GUILLEMINOT, B., J.-J. OHANA, S. OHANA

The Interaction of Speculators and Index Investors in Agricultural Derivatives Markets

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, November 2014, vol. Vol. 45, Issue 6, pp. pp. 767-792 26p.

Journal Article

2014

ANDREEVA, T., M. FESTING, D. MINBAEVA, M. MURATBEKOVA-TOURON

The Janus Faces of IHRM in Russian MNEs

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, November 2014, vol. Vol. 53, Issue 6, pp. pp. 967-986 20 p.

Journal Article

2014

SPIESER, P., J. FOUQUAU

The LIBOR rate: What does it look like during Turmoil Times ?

JOURNAL OF QUANTITATIVE ECONOMICS, 2014, vol. 12 (2), pp. 110-120

Journal Article

2014

ANDRIOSOPOULOS, D., M. LASFER

The market valuation of share repurchases in Europe. A cross-country analysis

JOURNAL OF BANKING AND FINANCE, 2014

Paper presented in a Conference

2014

ARIÑO, A., X. SOBREPERE, B. TYLER, J. REUER

The Micro-foundations of Entry Mode: An Experimental Study of Managers' Entry Mode Preferences

in Strategic Management Society Special Conference, 2014, Copenhague, Denmark

Research Monograph (Working papers)

2014

M. FESTING, I. SAHAKIANTS

The Minder Initiative and Executive Pay Narratives in Germany and Russia: Cases of Path Dependence?

ESCP Europe / ESCP Europe Working Paper Nr. 64, 2014