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 :
13043 publications

Conference Proceedings

2013

STEYER, V.

Le sensemaking en situation d’alerte, entre construction sociale du risque et relations d’accountability

in XXIIème conférence de l’AIMS, AIMS, 2013, clermont-ferrand, France

Journal Article

2013

MORAND, P.

Le soft power culturel à l'heure de l'immatérialisme

MODE DE RECHERCHE - INSTITUT FRANCAIS DE LA MODE, 2013, vol. 19

Conference Proceedings

2013

JULIA, G.

Le vélo et le droit

in Le droit d'exploitation des instances sporti ves sur les compétitions sportives, Université du Havre, 2013

Journal Article

2013

GPILLET, G.

Le vice caché ne donne ouverture à aucune action en responsabilité contractuelle de droit commun

La semain juridique, 2013, vol. com., 19 mars 2013, JCP G, 17 juin 2013, 705

Chapter

2013

CESARONI, F., D. BAGLIERI, L. ORSI

Learning from Patents: An Application of Technology Intelligence in Nanotechnology

in Organizational Change and Information Systems: Working and Living Together in New Ways,., Paolo Spagnoletti Ed., Springer, 2013

Published Case Study

2013

LAPOULE, P.

Leclerc : le bon vin à la bonne place

2013, CCMP, Paris, France

Published Case Study

2013

LAPOULE, P.

Leclerc: the right wine at the right place

2013, CCMP, Paris, France

Chapter

2013

SCHMID, S., P. GROSCHE

Lenovo: Ein neuer Global Player aus dem Reich der Mitte

in Strategien der Internationalisierung: Fallstudien und Fallbeispiele., Schmid, S. (Ed.), Oldenbourg, pp. pp. 141-158, 2013

Paper presented in a Conference

2013

PINOT DE VILLECHENON, F., H. LOPEZ RIZZO

Les barrières à l’internationalisation. Analyse des PME françaises opérant au Mexique et au Brésil

in ANCRAGES CULTURELS ET DYNAMIQUES DU MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL, 2013, Montréal, Canada

Debate; Point of view; Editorial,…

2013

TISSIER-DESBORDES, E., E. VERNETTE

Les consommateurs sont-ils sensibles à l'effet "Made In" ? Editorial

2013, DM - DECISIONS MARKETING