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 :
13052 publications

Chapter

2006

FOUQUAU, J., G. DESTAIS, C. HURLIN

Economic Development and Energy Intensity

in The Econometrics of Energy Systems., HORST KEPPLER J., BOURBONNAIS R., GIROD J. (Eds.) Eds, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. pp. 98-120 (23 p.), 2006

Chapter

2006

DELVAILLE, P.

Effets des variations des cours de monnaies étrangères

in Normes comptables internationales, série 3., CNED-INTEC, pp. pp 49-62 14 p, 2006

Research Monograph (Working papers)

2006

FERRERO TURRIÓN, R.

El Mediterraneo ampliado : perspectivas de actuacion para Espana y la union Europea

Instituto Universitario General Guttierez Mellado, 2006

Journal Article

2006

MARTEAU, D.

Enjeux sociaux et concurrence internationale : du dumping social au mieux-disant social

AVIS ET RAPPORTS DU CONSEIL ECONOMIQUE ET SOCIAL - JOURNAL OFFICIEL DE LA REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE, November 2006, vol. n° 20, pp. 131 p

Paper presented in a Conference

2006

ACQUIER, A., F. AGGERI

Entrepreneuriat institutionnel et apprentissages collectifs. Le cas de la global reporting initiative (GRI)

in Actes de la 15e Conférence Internationale de Management Stratégique, AIMS, 2006, Annecy

Journal Article

2006

KUPP, M., J. RECKHENRICH, J. ANDERSON

Entrepreneurs on a dance floor

BUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW, 2006, vol. Vol.17, Issue 4, pp. pp.26-31 6p.

Paper presented in a Conference

2006

BADOT, O., L. GRAILLOT

Equisse d'un modèle de différentiation symbolique entre `marketing hyperréel' et `Marketing méditerranéen' : le cas de l'enseigne L'Occitane

in Actes du 1e Colloque International `Management dans l'Espace Méditerranéen', Réseau Méditerranéen des Ecoles de Management, Ecole Supérieure des Affaires de Beyrouth, 2006, Liban

Paper presented in a Conference

2006

BADOT, O.

Esquisse des fonctions socio-antropologiques du commerce et de la distribution : les cas Mac Donald's, West Edmonton Mall et Wal-Mart

in Actes des 5è Journées Normandes de Recherche sur la Consommation, IAE de Caen, 2006, Basse Normandie

PhD Dissertation

2006

CABANTOUS, L.

Essays on Behavioural Decision-Making

2006, Université Toulouse 1 - Capitole, Toulouse, France

Journal Article

2006

ROLLE, G.

Estensione ai compensi professionali del regime di indeducibilità

CORRIERE TRIBUTARIO, 2006, pp. 42