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 :
13030 publications

Debate; Point of view; Editorial,…

2024

BADOT, O., P. JOFFRE, A. SCOUARNEC

Badot, O., Joffre, P. and Scouarnec, A., 2024. Un retour sur la revue Management & Avenir à l’occasion de ses noces de porcelaine: d’un positionnement disciplinaire et méthodologique prospectif à l’analyse de secteurs et de thématiques du monde des affaires en mutation. Management & avenir, (3), pp.9-15

2024, MANAGEMENT & AVENIR

Published Case Study

2024

FORTERRE, D., A. -L. CHANSEL

Balibaris: De meilleur espoir masculin à une référence Mode et Lifestyle

2024, CCMP, France

Journal Article

2024

FRIEDRICH, J., T. KUNKEL, M. THIEMANN

Becoming influential: Strategies of control, expertise, and socialisation in transnational governance of accounting regulation

ACCOUNTING, ORGANIZATIONS AND SOCIETY, 2024, vol. 113

Journal Article

2024

FÜRSTENBERG, N., J. E. BOOTH, K. ALFES

Benefitting or suffering from a paradoxical leader? A self-regulation perspective

HUMAN RELATIONS, 2024, vol. 77 (10), pp. 1502–1533

Journal Article

2024

SCHMIDT, M.

Berücksichtigung von Wertminderungen bei assoziierten Unternehmen bei erstmaliger Erfassung?

ZEITSCHRIFT FUR INTERNATIONALE RECHNUNGSLEGUNG - IRZ, 2024, vol. 2024 (11), pp. 465-470

Conference Proceedings

2024

WALDNER, C., S. SCHRAGE, A. RASCHE

Between Global Synergies and Local Adaption: How NGOs Deal with Global-Local Tensions

in Annual Meeting, Academy of Management (AOM), 2024, Chicago, United States

Paper presented in a Conference

2024

VOYER, B., G., R. RAHAJASON, H. GONZALEZ JIMENEZ, C. GASTON-BRETON

Beyond Adoption: Motivations to Continuous Chatbot Usage

in Annual Conference, 2024, Hobart, Australia

ESCP Impact Papers

2024

BENYAYER, L. -D., H. ZHONG

Beyond automation: Crafting a future where AI augments, not replaces

2024, ESCP Impact Papers

Contribution on blogs and Social Networks

2024

BENYAYER, L. -D.

Beyond automation: Strategic implications of generative AI in business

2024, The Choice

ESCP Impact Papers

2024

MARTY, L., S. BUREAU, J. FUCHS

Beyond entrepreneurial chaos: Establishing company principles through the plasticity method

2024, ESCP Impact Papers