Work of art as self-fashioning experience

The discussion on the aesthetic experience and a work of art centres on the relationship between the artist, the artwork, and the recipient - each of which is open to debate. This article focuses on the latter: the recipient’s experience. It proposes that „tasting” a work of art - understood as the aesthetic „encounter” from the perspective of the recipient - is fundamentally a formative process for the self, or the „I”, that the recipient embodies. Furthermore, the article argues that the power of art lies in its capacity to self-fashion and transform: to form and portray the self, as well as to influence and reshape attitude and principles - whether (auto)poetic, philosophical, political, or broadly existential. Such self demonstrates aesthetic readiness to create and reshape the reality. The experience of a work of art is thus positioned as a crucial factor in the formation of the self and the foundations of living reality. These arguments are illustrated through specific examples drawn from cinematography.