I’m TF1’s Director of Special Operations, former Editorial Director (2010-2018), and I’m regularly Editor-in-Chief of the TV News.
At the end of 2012, I was looking for an idea to illustrate the news of the last twelve months.

Television channels regularly review the past year’s news, usually showing images of major events in France and around the world.
But I wasn’t satisfied with the simple exercise of “recalling the year’s highlights” from the archives, which I found rather convenient, and I was looking for another way of approaching things.

So I approached Yann, whom I’d met a few months earlier at a mutual friend’s house. We’d talked a lot and I’d found him innovative in his approach to his art.

A few weeks after our meeting, we set ourselves a joint challenge: to think together about how to report on the year’s news. An innovative project, in words and in paint, offering an alternative to what is known in journalistic jargon as a “chestnut”.

As a result, we came up with the idea of illustrating, through his art, the major events of 2012. We exchanged many ideas and reflections on the events in question. And we settled on 12 facts, worthy of being retained and symbolized on a painting.A few days later, Yann came back to me with his ideas in place.

We agreed that a journalist from TF1 would come to his studio to film his work in the form of a performance, and that he would have carte blanche.
Yann accepted the challenge, which was a brave one on his part, as it involved working under live conditions and therefore, as they say, “without a net”.
Yann had four hours to symbolize the twelve events of 2012 on a canvas measuring two meters by two meters!

His work as a “painter of current events” was the subject of a nearly five-minute report on the 8 o’clock news on December 31, 2012, presented by Julien Arnaud.
In the days following his television appearance before several million viewers, we received an avalanche of reactions, underlining the originality of the approach and praising Yann’s work.

His painting is still on display today next to the office of the TF1 group’s news director. I pass by it almost every day. And over time, I regularly discover details that I hadn’t noticed at first glance!

Antoine Guélaud