The Past in the Present occasionally commissions artists to carry out specific projects that problematize a particular historical concept or issue of representation – sometimes using archival images as source material and/or a point of departure. Commissioning work in this way not only helps to invigorate the ideas (and cohesion) of The Past in the Present, but at the same time helps to enrich the landscape of the visual arts, since an initiative is taken, in which artists conceive new work in response to a stimulating question. In each individual case, the results of the commission were exhibited (and in some cases published).