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 :
13049 publications

Chapter

2009

MORAND, P.

L'Economie de l'immatériel

in VIA Design 3.0., GUILLAUME V., LAIZE G. (eds), Éditions du Centre Georges Pompidou / VIA, pp. pp. 48-51 4 p., 2009

Conference Proceedings

2009

LAMY, E.

L'efficacité économique de l'unité axiologique de la science

in La question de l'unité des sciences aujourd'hui, Société de Philosophie des Sciences, 2009, Genève, Switzerland

Chapter

2009

SCHMID, S.

L'Entreprise Internationale, une Entreprise "en Réseau" (The International Firm as a Network Firm)

in Le Modèle L'Oréal: Les Stratégies Clés d'une Multinationale Française., Collin, B. and Rouach, D. (Eds.) Eds, Éditions d'Organisation/Pearson, pp. pp. 92-97, 2009

Paper presented in a Conference

2009

COEURDEROY, R., P. DAVIDSSON, S. TYWONIAK, A. LWANGO

L'étendue internationale des nouvelles firmes de hautes technologies : le rôle du capital humain et de l'intention stratégique des fondateurs

in Actes de l'Association Internationale de Management Stratégique, 2009, Nice, France

Journal Article

2009

BADOT, O., C. CARRIER, B. COVA, D. DESJEUX, M. FILSER

L'ethnomarketing

RAM - RECHERCHE ET APPLICATIONS EN MARKETING, March 2009, vol. Vol. 24, n° 1, pp. pp. 93-111 19 p.

Book

2009

PATAUT, E., D. CHEKROUN

L'Europe de la justice

Les essais, Paris, France, 2009

Journal Article

2009

CREEL, J., E. LAURENT, J. LE CACHEUX

L'Europe en crises

REVUE DE L'OFCE : OBSERVATIONS ET DIAGNOSTICS ECONOMIQUES, July 2009, vol. n° 110, pp. pp. 445-470 26 p.

Chapter

2009

CARBONE, V., C. BLANQUART

L'impact de la durabilité sur les stratégies logistiques globales

in Les paradoxes de la globalisation des marchés., TOURNOIS N., MILLIOT E. (eds), Vuibert, pp. pp. 195-211 17 p., 2009

Journal Article

2009

CHEKROUN, D.

L'Impérium de l'arbitre

ARCHIVES DE PHILOSOPHIE DU DROIT, 2009, vol. n° 52, pp. pp. 135-180 45 p.

Journal Article

2009

HOSSFELD, C.

L'information financière sur le risque de liquidité des banques

REVUE FRANCAISE DE COMPTABILITE, June 2009, vol. n° 422, pp. pp 22-26 5 p.