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.
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.
Conference Proceedings
2011
The role of customer co-production in value creation
in Proceedings of the Naples Forum on Service, Naples Forum on Service, 2011, Capri, Italy
Guest Speaker in a Conference
2011
The role of extreme events on consumer behaviours
2011, AKO Capital
Journal Article
2011
The role of social identity, appraisal, and emotion in determining responses to diversity management
HUMAN RELATIONS, 2011, vol. Vol. 64, Issue 2, pp. pp. 161-176 16 p.
Chapter
2011
The Shadow Side of Leadership
in The Sage Handbook of Leadership., BRYMAN A., COLLINSON D. L., GRINT K., JACKSON B., UHL-BIEN M. Eds, Sage, pp. pp. 380-390 11 p., 2011
Paper presented in a Conference
2011
The SME financing gap in Slovenia : a macro economic perspective on a micro economic SME financing problem.
in Researching economic development and enterpreneurship in transitional economies, 2011, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Journal Article
2011
The Transitory VAT Cut in the UK: A Dynamic General Equilibrium Analysis
ECONOMIC ISSUES, 2011
Journal Article
2011
The Walrasian Output Beats the Market
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GAME THEORY, 2011
Journal Article
2011
Theoretical versus actual product variety: how much customisation do customers really demand?
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OPERATIONS AND PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT, 2011, vol. 31/3, pp. 350-370
Paper presented in a Conference
2011
Théorie du Réenchantement de la consommation et de la distribution
in Actes du Séminaire Doctoral des 10èmes Journées Normandes de Recherche sur la Consommation, 2011, Rouen
Journal Article
2011
Think again : Entrepreneurs on a dance floor
BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW, 2011, vol. Vol. 22, Issue 1, pp. pp. 65-68 4 p.