Ashkan Goodarzi
Ashkan Goodarzi is an Iranian illustrator and animation artist based in Berlin, currently pursuing an MFA in Animation Direction at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. The work focuses on atmosphere-driven storytelling, using character, gesture, and space to communicate without reliance on dialogue or explicit narrative. Images function as quiet, cinematic scenes—moments where time slows and emotion settles into posture, silence, and environment.
Working across illustration and animation, the practice combines bold composition, expressive colour, and symbolic detail to construct intimate visual worlds. A central focus lies in gesture and interaction: how bodies, objects, and architecture relate and shape the experience of a space. Rooms are treated as emotional structures where distance, posture, and small actions carry meaning.
Recurring themes include memory, anxiety, solitude, and the fragile boundary between inner and outer reality. Alongside this runs an interest in the pressure of identity as something constructed and demanded—the mask, the role, the performance required to become legible and acceptable—and in the moments where that structure loosens and the self can remain ambiguous and unfixed. The tone leans psychological, dreamy, and melancholic, treating illustration and animation as spaces of presence rather than explanation.
Open to commissions and collaborations in editorial, publishing, music, and cultural contexts, including book covers, album artwork, posters, visual essays, and narrative-driven projects.
Selected Projects & Exhibitions
Salsa Film Festival 2025 — Visual identity & animated teaser, screened at CineStar Weimar
Under Shadow of the Norms — Visual essay / illustrated book
Cover Illustration & Feature — Pigeon Publishing
The Pulse of an Echo — Short animated film, screened at Lichthaus Kino and Mon Ami, Weimar (2024)
Group Exhibition — Mon Ami, Weimar
Group Exhibition — curated by Artfatale, Bielefeld