Funk Staden (2007) was conceived as a video installation for documenta12. It is based on the famous report Wahrhaftige Historia (1557) written by the soldier Hans Staden, from Kassel, when he was at the service of the Portuguese crown in Brazil, in the 1550s. The ensuing book tells the story of his shipwreck off the coast of Brazil during a colonial expedition, his capture by the Tupinambá people, his captivity and his lucky escape. Wahrhaftige Historia contributed significantly to the emergence of the European myth of the brutal savage in the tropics with anthropophagous practices. This myth was used to legitimize colonization. The artists transpose the story to a favela not far from the Pão de Açúcar. They work with the funkeiros to ritualistically re-enact the images of nine woodcuts from the book, dancing to the hard rhythms of the local baile funk. The work exposes the classical clichés and deconstructs the myth.