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 :
13045 publications

Guest Speaker in a Conference

2011

RADICA, G.

Genèse et histoire chez Rousseau

2011, l'Université fédérale du Parana, Curitiba, Brazil

Edited Book / Textbook

2011

JACOB, F., M. KLEINALTENKAMP, W. PLINKE, I. GEIGER, A. SÖLLNER

Geschäftsbeziehungsmanagement

Gabler, 2011

Journal Article

2011

BERTOLDI, B.

Giovanni e quell'idea nata sui pedali.

SOLE 24 ORE (IL), 2011

Research Monograph (Working papers)

2011

MEHAIGNERIE, S.

Global account management from a cross-cultural perspective: leveraging cultures for success

united-notions, 2011

Paper presented in a Conference

2011

KNAPPERT, L., M. FESTING

Global Performance Management in MNEs - an Empirical Test of Country-Specific Profiles in China, Germany and the USA

in Proceeding of the 9th Workshop on International Strategy and Cross-Cultural Management, EIASM, 2011, Moscow

Paper presented in a Conference

2011

FORTWENGEL, J.

Global Value Chains and Development Strategies: Institutionalizing Broad Upgrading

in Crossing National Borders: People, Goods, Capital, and Ideas, 2011, Leipzig, Germany

Paper presented in a Conference

2011

CARBONE, V., C. BLANQUART

Green collaborative practices in the supply chain: an explorative analysis in terms of forms of proximity

in Proceedings of the 16th International Symposium on Logistics (ISL), 2011, Berlin

Book

2011

PAPE, U.

Grundlagen der Finanzierung und Investition, 2nd edition

Oldenbourg, München, Germany, 2011

Chapter

2011

SCHMID, S., A. DANIEL

Headquarters-Subsidiary Relationships from a Social-Psychological Perspective: How Perception Gaps Concerning the Subsidiary's Role May Lead to Conflict

in Politics and Power in MNCs., Dörrenbächer, C. and Geppert, M. (Eds.) Eds, Cambridge University Press, pp. pp. 255-280, 2011

Journal Article

2011

BRIDOUX, F., R. COEURDEROY, R. DURAND

Heterogeneous Motives and the Collective Creation of Value

ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT REVIEW (THE), 2011, vol. Vol.36, Issue 4, pp. pp. 711-730 20 p.