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.
Journal Article
2024
From heterogeneity to inequality: The impact of nationality diversity on leadership in multinational teams
JOURNAL OF WORLD BUSINESS, 2024, vol. 59 (3), pp. 101535
ESCP Impact Papers
2024
From self-empowerment to self-rejection: On the (un)intended consequences of AI-powered physiological self-tracking
2024, ESCP Impact Papers
Chapter
2024
From Technology and Virtuality to "Our Digital Lives"
in Current Directions in ICT and Society., C. Leslie and D. Kreps Ed., Springer, chap. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, pp. 59–88, 2024
ESCP Impact Papers
2024
GenAI and sustainability: Which wave should we ride?
2024, ESCP Impact Papers
Journal Article
2024
Geographical Indications as a Labelling Strategy: An Empirical Investigation of Negative bias, and its Managing Conditions
JOURNAL OF CONSUMER MARKETING, 2024, vol. 41 (3), pp. 340-356
Journal Article
2024
Gestation in new technology ventures: Causal brakes and effectual pedals
JOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, 2024, vol. 62 (1), pp. 67-102
Journal Article
2024
Gestion hospitalière : passer d’une succession de solutions insatisfaisantes à une démarche d’enquête
FINANCES HOSPITALIERES, 2024
Journal Article
2024
Getting on top of work-email: A systematic review of 25 years of research to understand effective work-email activity
JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY, 2024, vol. 97(1), pp. 74–103
ESCP Impact Papers
2024
Green fiscal dominance
2024, ESCP Impact Papers
Edited Special Issue
2024
Guest Editorial - Special Issue in Celebration of the 50th Seminar of the European Group of Risk and Insurance Economists
2024, GENEVA RISK AND INSURANCE REVIEW