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.
Paper presented in a Conference
2006
Innovation engineering
in Proceedings of the Innovation International Forum Iberia, 2006, Madrid
Paper presented in a Conference
2006
Instruments de gestion et santé: la difficile rencontre
in Actes du Colloque de l'Institut de santé au travail (IST), 2006, Lausanne
Paper presented in a Conference
2006
Integration von E-Learning und Wissensmanagement - Konzeption eines Integrierten Wissens- und Lernsystems entlang interoperabler Methoden
in Mit Wissensmanagement besser im Wettbewerb, Proceedings of the KnowTech, 2006, France
Chapter
2006
Integrative Reflections
in Effective Management of Social Enterprises: Lessons from Businesses and Civil Society Organizations in Iberoamerica., James Austin, Roberto Gutiérrez, Enrique Ogliastri, Ezequiel Reficco Eds, Harvard University Press, vol. David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, chap. 11, pp. 277-290, 2006
Chapter
2006
Interface Standards: Integration of learning and business information systems
in Handbook on Quality and Standardisation in E-Learning., EHLERS U-D., PAWLOWSKI J. M. (eds), Springer, pp. pp 275-289 15 p, 2006
Paper presented in a Conference
2006
Intergroup emotions in work groups: Some antecedents and performance consequences
in Proceedings of the 10th Annual Conference on Research on Managing Groups and Teams, 2006, Stanford
Chapter
2006
International Human Resource Management and Economic Theories of the Firm
in Handbook of Research in International Human Resource Management., STAHL G., BJÖRKMANN I. (eds), Edward Elgar, pp. pp 449-462 14 p, 2006
Textbook
2006
Internationales Management
2006, Oldenbourg, Munich, Vienna, Germany
Chapter
2006
Internationales Management
in Wirtschaftslexikon: Das Wissen der Betriebswirtschaftslehre., Handelsblatt Ed., Schäffer-Poeschel, vol. Vol. 5, pp. pp. 2590-2598, 2006
Chapter
2006
Internationales Personalmanagement
in Wirtschaftslexikon. Das Wissen der Betriebswirtschaftslehre., Schäffer-Poeschel, pp. pp 2609-2619 11 p, 2006