Valérie Labayle is an art historian specialized in contemporary French art. Between 1998 and 2000, she worked at the French Ministery of Culture (Délégation aux Arts Plastiques / Visual arts section) where she was editor of Lettre d'Information du Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, and she taught history of art at the ESAD (Ecole Supérieure d'Art et de Design) in Reims. She is a curator at the Mac/Val museum since 2001 and she is in charge of the residency program since 2007 – she has invited and followed artists such as Shilpa Gupta, Kimsooja, Adel Abidin, Pirjetta Brander, Mona Hatoum, Alexei Kallima and Irina Korina.