Improbable Chair by Galeries Lafayette Art Thinking
See this page in
[FR]
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.
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
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
- Scientific publications
- Doctoral theses and final dissertations
- Improbable Siesta: seminar bringing together researchers, artists, and experts in creation
- Spreading the Improbable method at ESCP and beyond
- Designing initial training in Art Thinking
- Training Art Thinking instructors
- 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...

Article
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.
Paper presented in a Conference
2011
An attentional perspective on leadership
in 27th EGOS colloquium - Reassembling Organizations, 2011
Conference Proceedings
2011
An Examination of the Risky Role of the Business Continuity Manager: A France UK Comparison
in British Academy of Management Conference 2011, British Academy of Management Conference, 2011, Birmingham, United Kingdom
Textbook
2011
Analyse financière
2011, Entreprise, Paris, France
Book
2011
Analyse financière
Master, Paris, France, 2011
Chapter
2011
Analysis of Changing Institutional Environments, New Acounting Policies, and Corporate Governance Practices in France
in Law, Corporate Governance, and Accounting: European perspectives., KRIVOGORSKY V. (ed.), Routledge, pp. pp. 131-153 23 p., 2011
Textbook
2011
Annales du certificat d'aptitude aux fonctions de commissaire aux comptes 2010
2011, CNCC, Paris, France
Paper presented in a Conference
2011
Anthropologie et marketing
in Actes du CEFAG (FNEGE), 2011, La Baule
Paper presented in a Conference
2011
Apprendre à sentir, apprendre à juger dans l’Emile de Rousseau
in Journée d'étude sur Rousseau, 2011, Dijon, France
Journal Article
2011
Arbeitsvertraglicher Ausschluss des Annahmeverzugs – Können Arbeitgeber § 615 Satz 1 BGB individuell oder formularmäßig ausschließen?
ARBEITS-RECHTS- BERATER, 2011, pp. 222-224
Guest Speaker in a Research Seminar
2011
Are Red or Blue Companies More Likely to Go Green? Politics and Corporate Social Responsibility
Finance Seminars. 2011