PREVIEW OF 2013
PREVIEW OF 2013 What’s in store for the year ahead? Here are 5 events to whet your appetite
GRAND THEFT AUTO V
Rockstar North releases ambitious new instalment of game franchise GTA V: four letters that will bring joy to any gamer’s heart come March 2013. It will have been five years since Grand Theft Auto IV and with every instalment Edinburgh developers Rockstar North push further at the boundaries of what is possible in gaming. GTA V boasts the largest game world they have ever created, saying it will be bigger than GTA IV, Red Dead Redemption and GTA: San Andreas combined, even the ocean floor will be fully textured and explorable. That alone sounds simply astounding but this is also the first GTA to feature three main protagonists (Michael, Trevor and Franklin) who’s lives intersect Short Cuts-style in the fictional city of Los Santos. While you can swap between this criminal trio at will, the characters will also go about their lives even while you aren’t controlling them. It’s not just the scale of this project but the attention to detail that really sets Rockstar productions apart from their peers, while there are missions to complete that push the narrative on you’ll find yourself spending just as much time simply exploring this complex
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digital realm. If the level of fanboy drooling that greeted the trailer is any indication, Rockstar will have another world dominating mega hit on their hands. (Henry Northmore) ■ Grand Theft Auto V is due for release in March 2013 (date TBC).
MASSIMO BARTOLINI Magical Italian artist set to take over the Fruitmarket
One of the most eagerly anticipated exhibitions to arrive in Scotland in the new year is a show of new sculptural work by the Italian artist, Massimo Bartolini. Bartolini is best known for working outside of the studio, employing teams of specialists to create work that responds to a given space, sometimes subtly and sometimes with startling, transformative results. The Fruitmarket exhibition is one of a pair the artist is currently working on, the other being at SMAK, the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Ghent in April. While the Belgian audience will get to see Bartolini’s ‘Organi’, an organ made out of scaffolding pipes that plays music by John Cage, Edinburgh art lovers are to be treated to ‘La strada di sotto’
(‘The Street Below’, pictured), a sizable field of coloured lights of the kind used during Sicilian street celebrations. The main display will be supported by a selection of smaller sculptures and studioworks, which will provide an insight into Bartolini’s organic and highly experimental working methods. (Allan Radcliffe) ■ Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Fri 1 Feb–Sun 14 Apr.
THE GREAT GATSBY
Australian maverick Baz Luhrmann brings an American classic to the big screen F Scott Fitzgerald’s great American novel has been adapted for cinema three times before. These films – one silent, two sound – had their charms but struggled with the central contradiction of the book: how can hateful decadence and privilege in decay be vulgar and outdated and yet so compulsive? Jack Clayton’s 1974 version starring Robert Redford (and scripted by Francis Ford Coppola) came closest. That’s because Clayton was a Brit and cultural distance is always needed from great novels and their homeland. Largely driven by ambition and box office success the modern American